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BRIEF  DESCRIPTION 


SYSTEM    OF    EDUCATION 


AUOl'TKD   IN  THE 


CELEBRATED  COMMON  SCHOOLS 


PRUSSIA: 


SOME  NOTICE  OF  SCHOOL  BOOKS 


CORRESPONDING  fN  CHARACTER 


TO  THOSE  USED  IN  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  THAT  COUNTRY 


PHILADELPHIA: 

HOGAN    AND    THOMPSON 

No.  30  North  Fourth  Si  rest 

1838. 


BRIEF    DESCRIPTION 


SYSTEM   OF   EDUCATION 


ADOPTED  IN  THE 


CELEBRATED  COMMON  SCHOOLS 


PRUSSIA: 


SOME  NOTICE  OF  SCHOOL  BOOKS 

<8;orcesi)on"0fnfl  In  ffifjaractcr 
TO  THOSE  USED  IN  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  THAT  COUNTRY. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
HOGAN   AND    THOMPSON, 

No.  30  North  Fourth  Street. 

1838. 


O.  SHEKHAN  AND  CO.,  PRINTERS, 

19  St.  James  Street. 


\0 


^'^ 


^  PUBLIC 


INSTRUCTION  IN  PRUSSIA 


The  writer  has  been  requested  to  furnish  some  particulars 
of  the  system  of  national  education  in  present  use  in  the  king- 
dom of  Prussia.      The  spirit,  rather  than  the  details,  of  this 
great  institution  is  applicable  in  the  United  States,  and  its 
•whole  economy  and  general  character  are  exhibited  in   Mrs. 
Austin's  translation  of  Cousin's  Report.     In  the  preface  to  that 
work  the  author  asserts  that,  *'  There  is  such  a  coherency, 
both  in  the  fabric  it  describes,  and  in  the  description,  that  no 
one  will  fully  understand  the  system,  who  cannot  bear  the  toil 
2i3f  following  the  author  step  by  step.     Portions  may  be  select- 
h-ed  which  show  the  beautiful  spirit  pervading  the  whole,  and 
<which  must,  I   should  think,  touch  any  human  heart ;   but  its 
anerit  as  a  piece  of  legislation — as  a  system  living  and  work- 
Hng — can  only  be  appreciated  when  studied  connectedly  and  in 
detail." — These  remarks  of  Mrs.  Austin  suggest  the  character 
''"of  this  institution,  and  it  is  hoped,  will  commend  it  to  persons 
'^interested  in  public  education,  and  in  its  practical  improvement 
S  in  the  United  States. 

Public  Instruction,  in  relation  to  this  system,  signifies,  "  in- 
j}  struction  -provided  for  the  whole  public  by  the  state."* 
^5       The  territory  of  the  kingdom  of  Prussia  is  divided  into  ten 
f  provinces,  the  provinces  into  departments,  the  departments  into 

V  *  Cousin. 


414740 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 


circles,  and  the  circles  into  parishes.  The  whole  of  the  public 
establishments  of  education,  throughout  these  subdivisions  of 
territory,  comprehend  elementary  or  primary  schools;  burgher 
or  middle  schools  ;  gymnasia  or  high  schools  ;  and  Universi- 
ties. All  the  institutions  are  under  the  regulation  of  the  laws, 
and  under  the  protection  and  ministration  of  an  appointed  ma- 
gistracy. The  present  system  came  into  operation  in  1819  ;  it 
hag  therefore  been  subjected  to  fifteen  years  of  experiment,  and 
has  been  constantly  growing  in  popular  favour,  and  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  most  public-spirited  and  philosophical  minds  over  all 
Europe.  The  whole  system  is  under  the  cognisance  and  con- 
trol of  the  minister  of  Public  Instruction,  who  is  assisted  in  his 
function  by  a  council,  which,  to  use  the  words  of  Cousin,  serves 
to  prevent  the  probable  errors  of  "  a  single  and  variable  head  ; 
to  make  new  rules  or  modify  old  ones  ;  to  aid  the  judgment  of 
the  minister  as  to  what  estabHshments  it  may  be  desirable  to 
found,  or  what  to  suppress  ;  above  all,  to  guide  him  in  the  ap- 
preciation and  the  choice  of  men,  and  to  serve  as  a  rampart' 
to  ward  off  solicitation  and  intrigue."  The  council  are  some- 
times severally  employed  to  visit  the  institutions  under  cogni- 
sance of  the  minister.  These  visits  are  unexpected,  always 
determined  by  a  real  necessity,  and  entrusted  to  men  espe- 
cially fitted  for  the  occasion.  In  the  general  course  of  affairs, 
the  correspondence  and  intervention  of  inferior  authorities,  im- 
mediately connected  with  the  ministry,  is  sufficient  to  carry 
on  the  system  in  its  ramifications  most  remote  from  the  cen- 
tre of  authority. 

Every  department,  circle,  and  parish,  has  its  school  board, 
which  regulates  its  respective  affairs,  and  eveiy  school  its 
proper  inspectors  or  committee,  consisting  of  laity  and  clergy, 
who  have  particular  and  frequently  recurring  duties  in  regard 
to  the  schools.  The  minister,  though  thoroughly  informed  of 
results,  does  not  interfere  minutely  with  details.  His  informa- 
tion of  the  operation  of  the  whole  system  is  nearly  perfect,  ^ 
being  gathered  from  full  and  accurate  reports  of  the  dependent  ^ 
functionaries. 

Two  features  in  this  system  are  very  striking — one,  is  the 


respect  felt  by  the  nation  for  the  dignity  and  uses  of  educa-    '^ 


IN  PRUSSIA.  5 

tion  ;  and  the  other,  the  positive  fitness  required  by  the  laws, 
for  the  exercise  of  the  respective  duties  of  those  employed  in 
the  administration  of  it.  "  The  high  rank  assigned  to  the  head 
of  public  instruction,  marks  the  respect  in  which  every  thing 
relating  to  that  important  subject  is  held  by  the  government ; 
hence  science  assumes  her  proper  place  in  the  state.  Civilisa- 
.tion,  the  intellectual  and  moral  interests  of  society,  have  their 
appointed  ministry.  This  ministry  embraces  every  thing  re- 
lating to  science,  and  consequently  all  schools,  libraries,  and 
kindred  institutions." 

"  The  spirit  of  the  Prussian  monarchy  is  decidedly  adverse 
to  unpaid  functionaries  of  any  kind,"  says  M.  Cousin,  there- 
fore the  administrators  of  the  public  education  have  generally 
some  small  salary  proper  to  their  office.  "  In  Prussia  all 
public  servants  are  paid  ;  and  as  no  post  whatsoever  can  be 
obtained  without  passing  thi^ough  the  most  rigorous  examina- 
tions, all  are  able  and  enlightened  men.  And  as,  moreover, 
they  are  taken  from  every  class  in  society,  they  brin^  to  the 
exercise  of  their  duties,  the  general  spirit  of  their  nation,  while 
in  that  exercise  they  contract  habits  of  public  business."  By 
such  an  arrangement  it  must  be  seen  that  voluntary  benefac- 
tors are  excluded,  except  in  the  bestowment  of  donations  and 
legacies  to  the  schools,  and  also  that  the  intrusive  counsels, 
and  arbitrary  proceedings  of  well  intentioned  ignorance,  can- 
not prevent  the  constant  improvement  and  progress,  which 
wise  men,  associated  together  for  the  public  benefit,  will  cer- 
tainly aim  at,  and  may  probably  accomplish.  No  languor, 
negligence,  and  apathy  are  likely  to  enter  into  the  applications 
of  a  system  guarded  in  so  many  ways.  Every  parish  must, 
by  the  law  of  the  land,  have  a  school ;  and  the  pastor,  or  mi- 
nister of  that  parish,  is  in  virtue  of  his  office,  the  inspector  of 
that  school ;  associated  with  him  is  a  committee  of  administra- 
tion and  superintendence,  composed  of  some  of  the  principal 
persons  in  the  parish.  If  all  the  operations  of  this  association 
were  carried  on  without  any  check  or  authority,  the  methods 
and  results  of  instruction  might  be  correspondent  entirely  to 
the  knowledge  or  ignorance,  the  vigilance  or  negligence,  of 
the  school  committee,  or  trustees.    But  every  department  has 


6  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

a  board  of  education,  called  the  Regency,  which  employs 
school-inspectors,  who  reside  in  the  chief  town  of  every  circle, 
and  who  inspect  all  the  schools  in  it ;  and  another  officer,  the 
school  councillor,  also  inspects  the  schools,  quickens  and  keeps 
alive  the  interest  of  the  school  committees  and  the  school- 
masters, and  makes  reports  to  the  higher  authority  of  the  ex- 
cellences and  defects  of  the  particular  schools ;  and  thus  what- . 
ever  is  wrong  is  known,  and  is  put  in  the  way  of  redress. 

The  preceding  statement  is  only  a  brief  notice  of  the  gene- 
ral economy  of  these  schools.  The  translation  of  Mrs.  Austin 
is  limited  to  the  details  of  primary  instruction,  and  to  this  only 
the  present  abstract  from  Cousin  is  also  restricted. — Cousin 
divides  his  report  into  the  rules  and  i\\e  facts,  thus  : 

I.  The  orginization  of  primary  instruction ;  the  laws  and 
rules  by  which  it  is  governed. 

II.  What  the  laws  and  regulations  have  actually  produced. 
— The  rules  are,  concerning  the  duty  of  all  parents  and  guar- 
dians to. send  their  children  to  the  primary  schools;  the  duty 
of  each  parish  to  maintain  a  school,  at  its  own  cost ;  general 
objects  and  different  gradations  of  primary  instruction ;  how 
primary  teachers  are  to  be  trained,  placed,  and  rewarded  or 
punished ;  authorities  employed  in  superintendence ;  and  pri- 
vate schools. 

The  duty  of  parents  to  educate  their  children,  by  means  of 
schools,  letters,  and  science,  has  long  been  recognised  in 
northern  Europe.  Cousin  believes  that  the  system  of  the 
present  education  in  Prussia  originated  in  national  tenden- 
cies— in  a  deep  and  general  feeling  that  the  moral  and  intel- 
lectual well-being  of  the  state,  and  of  the  individual,  must  be 
promoted  by  letters,  science,  and  religion  ;  the  last  two  being 
especially  represented  and  inculcated  by  means  of  literature. 

"  This  duty,"  says  Cousin,  "  is  so  natural,  so  rooted  in  all 
the  moral  and  legal  habits  of  the  country,  that  it  is  expressed 
by  a  single  word,  [in  English,]  school  ohligation.  In  Prussia 
the  state  has  for  many  years  imposed  on  all  parents  the  strict 
obligation  of  sending  their  children  to  school,  unless  they  are 
able  to  prove  that  they  give  them  a  competent  education  at 
home.     They  are  bound  to  send  their  children  to  school  from 


IN  PRUSSIA. 


the  age  of  five  years.     By  the  law  of  1819  this   obligation  is 
rigidly  enforced,  and  yet  it   is  not  esteemed   tyrannical,  but 
the. school  is  generally  regarded  as  a  privilege.      All  masters 
and  manufacturers  who  employ  children  as   servants  or  ap- 
prentices, says  the  law,  shall  be  required  to  give  them  a  suita- 
ble education  from  their  seventh  to  their  fourteenth  year  in- 
clusive.    No  child  can  be  removed  from   school  till  the  in- 
spectors examine  whether  he  has  gone  through  the  whole 
elementary  course.     A  rigid  census  is  taken  of  children,  and 
in  case  of  any  negligence  of  parents  or  guardians,  in  regular 
attendance  at  school,  the  magistrate  is  called  in,  to  enforce  the 
law.     But  considerable  facilities  are  afforded  to  the  observance 
of  this  law — for  the  time  employed  upon  lessons  is  so  arranged 
as  to  leave  children  several  hours  daily  for  work  at  home. 
Care  is  every  where  taken  to  furnish  necessitous  parents  with 
the  means   of  sending  their  children  to   school  by  providing 
them  with  clothing,  books,  &c.     To  these  facilities  are  added 
the  benevolent  and  enlightened  persuasions  of  the  school  com- 
mittee, who  represent  to  the  parents  the  exceeding   value   of 
a  good  elementary  education,  and  spread  among  the  young  a 
thirst  for  knowledge,  which  they  can  only  obtain  by  means  of 
the  legal  provision,  which  offers  it  to  them. 

Every  parish  is  bound  to  have  an  elementary  school.  The 
schools  are  supported  in  part  by  endowments  variously  de- 
rived, by  a  tax  upon  property,  and  by  contributions  of  parents 
who  are  able  to  pay  for  education.  The  financial  provisions, 
are  procured  in  these  ways,  according  to  local  circumstances. 
It  may  happen  that  one  village  will  be  too  poor  to  defray  the 
expense  of  a  school ;  in  that  case  the  combination  of  several, 
including  insulated  farm-houses,  is  allowed  in  order  to  form  a 
school. 

The  number  of  children  in  one  school  must  not  be  too 
great.  One  master  cannot  take  more  than  a  hundred.  Dif- 
ference of  religion  does  not  prevent  children  from  attending 
school  together,  unless  the  populousness  of  the  place  conveni- 
ently separates  them  into  schools  of  distinctive  denominations. 
In  relation  to  the  maintenance  of  the  schools,  the  law  thus 
defines  the  provision : 


8  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

1.  A  suitable  income  for  schoolmasters  and  schoolmistresses, 
and  a  small  annuity  for  them  when  past  service. 

2.  A  building  for  the  purposes  of  teaching  and  exercise, 
properly  laid  out,  kept  in  repair,  and  warmed. 

3.  Furniture,  books,  pictures,  instruments,  and  all  things  ne- 
cessary for  the  lessons  and  exercises. 

4.  Pecuniary  assistance  for  necessitous  scholars. 

Some  mention  has  been  made  of  the  sources  by  which  the 
expense  of  the  schools  is  defrayed.  A  small  but  certain  re- 
compense is  afforded  to  the  teacher  while  labouring,  and  when 
superannuated,  and  some  assistance  is  afforded  by  the  public 
bounty  for  the  widow  and  orphans  of  this  most  respectable 
and  honoured  labourer  for  the  public  good. 

The  conditions  which  are  essential  in  a  school-house  are  a 
healthy  situation,  rooms  of  sufficient  size,  well  ventilated,  and 
kept  with  the  greatest  neatness.  Every  school  in  a  village, 
or  small  town,  has  a  garden,  and  this  garden  is  made  available 
to  the  scholars  for  instruction  in  botany,  and  horticulture.  A 
gravelled  court  must  be  laid  out  in  front  or  rear  of  the  school 
for  exercises. 

There  shall  be,  according  to  the  degree  of  every  school,  a 
collection  of  maps  and  geographical  instruments  ;  models  for 
drawing  and  writing ;  instruments  and  collections  for  studying 
mathematics  and  natural  history.  Similar  articles  for  the  in- 
ferior schools,  must  be  regulated  in  quantity  and  quality  by 
the  possible  means  of  procuring  them. 

All  landholders,  tenants  and  householders,  contribute,  in 
proportion  to  their  property,  to  the  support  of  the  schools. 
The  scholars,  according  to  their  means,  or  the  funds  of  the 
school,  which  may  be  greater  or  less,  pay  school  fees.  No 
schoolmaster  collects  the  fees,  but  this  must  be  done  by  the 
committee.  Children  are  permitted  to  contribute  a  fund  for 
the  education  of  others  too  poor  to  pay  their  portion  of  the 
charge.  Tnere  are  some  schools  in  large  places  entirely 
free  to  the  poor. 

No  schoolmaster  can  be  allowed  to  increase  his  income  by 
occupations  unsuitable  to  the  dignity  of  his  office,  or  deroga- 
tory to  morality  in  the  highest  sense,  or  likely  to  divert  his  at- 


m  PRtrssiA.  9 

tention  from  his  studies.  He  may  be  a  clerk  or  organist  in  a 
church,  .and  may  receive  the  income  of  the  place,  provided 
the  service  of  the  school  be  not  interrupted  by  such  employ- 
ment. No  master  or  mistress  shall  engage  in  any  other  oc- 
cupation without  special  permission,  and  that  is  never  granted, 
except  perfectly  consistent  with  the  peculiar  decorum  of  the 
teacher's  station. 

The  committees  are  legally  responsible  for  all  expenses  of 
the  schools,  and  management  of  funds. 

The  province  of  primary,  middle,  and  high  schools,  together 
with  the  universities,  is  recognised  to  be  nearly  the  same  in 
Prussia  as  we  regard  it,  except  that  the  Prussian  system  aims 
at  higher  objects  than  the  common  education  of  this  country, 
and  employs  more  definite  means  for  the  peculiar  ends  of 
instruction. 

"  The  first  vocation  of  every  school/'  says  the  law  of  1819, 
"  is,  to  train  up  the  young  in  such  a  manner  as  to  implant  in 
their  minSs  a  knowledge  of  the  relation  of  man  to  God, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  excite  both  the  will  and  the  strength 
to  govern  their  lives  after  the  spirit  and  precepts  of  Christian- 
ity. Schools  must  early  train  children  to  piety,  and  therefore 
must  strive  to  second  and  complete  the  early  instructions  of 
parents.  In  every  school,  therefore,  the  occupations  of  the 
day  shall  begin  and  eiid  with  a  short  prayer  and  some 
pious  reflections,  which  the  master  must  contrive  to  render 
so  varied  and  impressive,  that  a  moral  exercise  shall  never 
degenerate  into  an  affair  of  habit.  All  the  solemnities  of  the 
schools  shall  be  interspersed  with  songs  of  a  religious  cha- 
racter. 

"Care  shall  be  taken  to  inculcate  on  youth  the  duty  of 
obedience  to  the  laws,  fidelity  and  attachment  to  the  sovereign 
and  state,  in  order  that  these  virtues  may  combine  to  produce 
in  them  the  sacred  love  of  country. 

"  The  paternal  attachment  of  the  masters,  their  affectionate 
kindness  towards  all  their  pupils,  are  the  most  powerful  means 
of  preserving  them  from  immoral  influences,  and  of  inclining 
them  to  virtue. 

"No  kind  of  punishment  which  has  a  tendency  to  weaken 

2 


10  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

the  sentiment  of  honour  shall  in  any  case  be  inflicted.  Cor- 
poral punishments,  in  case  they  be  necessary,  shell  be  devoid 
of.  cruelty,  and  in  no  case  injurious  either  to  modesty  or 
health." 

Some  further  regulations  of  these  schools,  and  the  detail  of 
their  course  of  instruction  is  taken  entire,  as  follows,  from 
Cousin's  report : — 

"  Incorrigible  scholars,  or  those  whose  example  or  influence 
may  be  pernicious  to  their  schoolfellows,  after  all  the  resources 
of  paternal  authority,  joined  to  that  of  the  masters,  shall  have 
been  exhausted,  shall  be  expelled  in  compliance  with  the  judg- 
ment of  the  school  committees. 

"  By  making  the  pupils  themselves,  as  they  advance  in  age, 
assist  in  maintaining  order  in  the  school,  they  will  be  accus- 
tomed to  feel  themselves  useful  and  active  members  of  society. 
"  Primary  instruction  shall  have  for  its  aim  to  develope  the 
faculties  of  the  soul,  the  reason,  the  senses,  and  the  bodily 
strength.  It  shall  comprehend  religion  and  morals,  the  know- 
ledge of  size  and  numbers,  of  nature  and  man ;  corporeal 
exercises,  singing,  and,  lastly,  imitation  of  form  by  drawing 
and  writing. 

"  In  every  school  for  girls,  without  exception,  the  works 
peculiar  to  their  sex  shall  be  taught. 

"Gymnastics  shall  be  considered  as  a  necessary  part  of  a 
complete  system  of  education,  and  shall  be  taught  by  simple 
rules  favourable  to  the  promotion  of  the  health  and  bodily 
strength  of  children. 

"  Every  complete  elementary  school  necessarily  compre- 
hends the  following  objects : — 

"  1.  Religious  instruction,  as  a  means  of  forming  the  moral 
character  of  children  according  to  the  positive  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

*'  2.  The  German  language,  and  in  provinces  where  a 
foreign  language  is  spoken,  the  language  of  the  country,  in 
addition  to  the  German. 

"  3.  The  elements  of  geometry,  together  with  the  general 
principles  of  drawing. 
"  4.  Calculation  and  practical  arithemetic. 


IN   PRUSSIA.  14 

"  5.  The  elements  of  physics,  geography,  general  history, 
and  especially  the  history  of  Prussia. 

"Care  must  be  taken  to  introduce  and  combine  these 
branches  of  knowledge  with  the  reading,  and  writing  lessons, 
as  much  as  possible,  independently  of  the  instruction  which 
shall  be  given  upon  those  subjects  specially. 

"  6.  Singing ;  with  a  view  'to  improve  the  voices  of  the 
children,  to  elevate  their  hearts  and  minds,  to  perfect  and  en- 
noble the  popular  songs  and  church  music  or  psalmody. 

"  7.  Writing  and  gymnastic  exercises,  which  fortify  all  the 
senses,  and  especially  that  of  sight. 

"  8.  The  simplest  manual  labours,  and  some  instructions  in 
husbandry,  according  to  the  agriculture  of  the  respective  parts 
of  the  country. 

"  The  instructions  in  religion,  reading,  writing,  arithmetic, 
and  singing  are  strictly  indispensable  in  every  school.  No 
school  shall  be  considered  as  a  complete  elementary  school, 
unless  it  fulfil  the  whole  scheme  of  instruction  just  marked  out. 

"Every  burgher  school  shall  afford  instruction  on  the  fol- 
lowing heads : — 

"  1.  Religion  and  morals. 

"  2.  The  German  language,  and  at  the  same  time,  the  lan- 
guage of  the  country  in  the  provinces  not  German ;  reading, 
composition,  exercises  in  style,  study  of  the  national  classics. 
In  all  the  German  part  of  the  country,  the  modern  foreign 
languages  are  an  accessory  branch  of  study. 

"  3.  Latin  is  taught  to  all  the  children,  within  certain  hmits 
as  a  means  of  exercising  their  faculties  and  their  judgment, 
whether  they  be  or  be  not  to  enter  the  higher  schools. 

"  4.  The  elements  of  mathematics,  and  especially  a  thorough 
course  of  practical  arithmetic. 

"  5.  Physical  science,  as  far  as  is  sufficient  to  explain  the 
most  remarkable  phenomena  of  nature. 

"  6.  Geography  and  history  combined,  in  order  to  give  some 
knowledge  of  the  earth,  of  the  general  history  of  the  world, 
of  the  people  who  inhabit  it,  and  the  empires  into  which  it  is 
divided.  Prussia,  its  history,  laws,  and  constitution,  shall  form 
the  subject  of  a  special  study. 


18  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

'•  7.  The  principles  of  drawing  shall  be  taught  to  all  concur- 
rently with  the  lessons  in  physics,  natural  history,  and  geome- 
try, 

<'  8.  Writing  must  be  carefully  attended  to,  and  the  hand 
trained  to  write  distinctly  and  neatly. 

"  9.  The  singing  lessons  shall  be  attended  by  all  the  pupils 
not  only  with  a  view  to  form  them  to  that  art,  but  to  qualify 
them  to  assist  in  the  services  of  the  church  with  propriety  and 
solemnity,  by  singing  the  psalms  or  choral  music  with  correct- 
ness and  judgment. 

"  10.  Gymnastic  exercises,  adapted  to  the  age  and  strength 
of  the  scholars. 

"  Masters  must  take  pains  to  know  the  particular  character 
and  qualities  of  each  pupil,  and  must  give  the  greatest  possible 
attention  to  the  periodical  examinations. 

"Every  scholar  of  an  elementary  school  shall,  when  he 
leaves  it,  receive  a  certificate  as  to  his  capacity,  and  his  moral 
and  religious  disposition,  signed  by  the  masters  and  the  school 
committee.  These  certificates  shall  always  be  presented  to 
master-manufacturers  or  artisans  on  being  bound  apprentice, 
or  to  housekeepers  on  entering  service. 

"  The  certificates  shall  not  be  given  to  the  scholars  till  the 
moment  of  their  finally  quitting  school ;  and  in  both  the 
burgher  shools  and  the  gymnasia,  this  shall  always  give  occa- 
sion to  a  great  solemnity. 

"  For  religious  instruction,  which,  in  protestant  schools,  is 
founded  mainly  on  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  Bible  and  the 
catechism  generally  adopted  shall  be  used.  The  New  Testa- 
ment shall  be  given  to  children  who  can  read.  The  more  ad- 
vanced sholars  shall  have  the  whole  Bible  in  Luther's  trans- 
lation. This  book  shall  also  be  used  for  the  religious  instruc- 
tion in  all  the  classes  of  the  gymnasia,  to  which  shall  be  added 
the  New  Testament  in  Greek. 

"  The  lesson-books  shall  be  carefully  selected  by  the  school- 
committees,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  higher  authorities, 
without  whose  approbation  no  book  can  be  admitted.  It  is 
commended  to  teachers  to  examine  elementary  works,  and 
their  opinion  is  regarded  in  the  choice  of  such  books. 


IN  PRUSSIA.  13 

"  If  there  is  a  deficiency  of  elementary  books  in  any  branch 
of  learning,  the  minister  shall  see  that  proper  ones  be  written 
or  compiled. 

"  The  masters  of  the  public  schools  must  choose  the  methods 
best  adapted  to  the  natural  growth  and  improvement  of  the 
human  mind ;  the  methods  which  gradually  and  constantly 
enlarge  the  understandings  of  the  children,  and  not  such  as 
instil  merely  mechanical  knowledge. 

"  It  will  be  the  duty  of  the  school  committees  to  inspect  the 
methods  adopted  by  the  masters,  and  to  aid  them  with  their 
advice;  they  are  never  to  tolerate  a  bad  method  ;  and  they 
shall  refer  the  matter  to  a  higher  authority  if  their  advice  is 
disregarded. 

"  Parents  or  guardians  have  a  right  to  inquire  into  the 
system  of  education  pursued  in  the  school,  and  into  the  pro- 
gress made  by  their  children.  In  order,  however,  to  avoid 
continual  appUcations  of  this  sort,  measures  shall  be  taken 
for  giving  a  public  report  of  the  state  of  the  school  from  time 
to  time, 

"  Parents  may  address  any  complaints  to  the  higher  au- 
thorities charged  with  the  superintendence  of  schools,  and 
these  complaints  must  be  examined  into  with  the  greatest 
care. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  those  who  iTit^ust  their  children  to  & 
public  school  are  bound  not  to  oppose  any  obstacle  to  their 
conforming  exactly  to  the  rules  established  in  the  school. 
They  are  bound,  on  the  contrary,  to  second  the  views  of  the 
masters,  to  fulfil  all  their  obligations  towards  them,  and  to 
furnish  the  children  with  every  thing  necessary  for  their 
studies. 

"  It  is  essential  to  the  general  order  that  every  pupil  in  every 
public  school  should  be  obliged  to  go  through  the  whole  course 
of  fundamental  instruction  of  the  degree  or  stage  to  which 
that  school  belongs ;  and  parents  shall  not  be  allowed  to  with- 
hold a  pupil  at  pleasure  from  any  branch  of  instruction.  Dis- 
pensations from  any  branch  must  be  asked  of  the  higher  au- 
thorities, who  will  judge  of  the  validity  of  the  reasons. 

"  Every  public  school,  in  as  much  as  it  is  a  national  insti- 


14  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

tution,  ought  to  afford  the  greatest  publicity  possible.  Conse- 
quently, in  every  boy's  school,  besides  the  private  examina- 
tions on  passing  from  one  class  to  another,  there  must  be 
public  examinations  calculated  to  show^  the  nature  and  the 
excellence  of  the  studies. 

"  Besides  this,  the  director,  (or  chairman)  of  the  committee, 
or  one  of  the  masters,  shall  give  an  account  of  the  state  and 
progress  of  the  school  in  a  written  report.  Lastly,  from  time 
to  time,  a  general  report  on  the  state  of  education  in  each 
province  shall  be  published. 

"Every  establishment  shall  be  at  liberty  to  choose  the  days 
on  which  to  give  the  public  the  means  of  knowing  the  state  of 
the  school,  by  speeches  or  other  exercises.  But  the  anniver- 
saries of  the  most  remarkable  days  in  the  national  history  are 
to  be  selected  in  preference. 

"  As  girls  are  destined  by  nature  for  a  quiet  and  retired  life, 
these  exercises  or  trials  are  never  to  be  public  in  their  schools. 
The  examination  shall  take  place  only  in  the  presence  of  the 
masters  and  parents. 

"  But  if,  on  the  one  hand,  it  is  incumbent  on  those  charged 
with  the  conduct  of  the  public  schools  to  strive  to  accomplish 
the  duties  the  state  imposes  on  them  for  the  training  of  citizens, 
they,  on  their  part,  have  a  right  to  expect  that  every  one 
should  pay  the  respect  and  gratitude  to  which  they  are  entitled 
as  labourers  in  the  sacred  work  of  education.  Masters  and 
mistresses  ought,  therefore,  to  be  the  objects  of  the  general 
esteem  due  to  their  laborious  and  honourable  function. 

"Institutions  for  the  public  instruction  have  a  right  to  claim 
from  all,  even  those  who  do  not  send  their  children  to  them, 
assistance  and  support  wherever  or  whenever  needed.  All 
public  authorities  are  required  to  protect  the  public  school, 
each  in  his  sphere  of  action,  and  to  lend  their  aid  to  school- 
masters in  the  exercise  of  their  functions,  as  to  any  other  ser- 
vants of  the  state. 

"  In  all  the  parishes  of  the  kingdom,  without  exception,  the 
clergyman  of  every  Christian  communion  shall  seize  every 
occasion,  whether  at  church,  or  during  their  visits  to  schools, 
or  in  their  sermons  at  the  opening  of  classes,  of  reminding  the 


IN  PRUSSIA.  ti 

schools  of  their  high  and  holy  mission,  and  the  people  of  their 
duties  towards  the  schools.  The  authorities,  the  clergy,  and 
the  masters  shall  unite  their  eiforts  to  strengthen  the  ties  of 
respect  and  attachment  between  the  people  and  the  school;  sq 
that  the  people  may  accustom,  themselves,  more  and  more,  to 
regard  education  as  one  of  the  essential  conditions  of  public 
life,  and  may  daily  take  a  deeper  interest  in  its  progress." 

"  The  best  plans  of  instruction  cannot  be  executed  except 
by  the  instrumentality  of  good  teachers ;  and  the  state  has 
done  nothing  for  popular  education,  if  it  does  not  watch  that 
those  who  devote  themselves  to  teaching  be  well  prepared ; 
then  suitably  placed,  encouraged,  and  guided  in  the  duty  of 
continued  self-improvement;  and,  lastly,  promoted  and  re- 
warded in  proportion  to  their  advancement,  or  punished  accord- 
ing to  their  faults. 

"  A  schoolmaster,  to  be  worthy  of  his  vocation,  should  be 
pious,  discreet,  and  deeply  impressed  with  the  dignity  and  sa- 
credness  of  his  calling.  He  should  be  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  duties  peculiar  to  the  grade  of  primary  instruction  in 
which  he  desires  to  be  employed ;  he  should  possess  the  art  of 
communicating  knowledge,  with  that  of  moulding  the  minds  of 
children :  conscientious  in  the  duties  of  his  office,  friendly  and 
judicious  in  his  intercourse  with  the  parents  of  his  pupils,  and 
with  his  fellow-citizens  in  general;  finally,  he  should  strive  to 
inspire  them  with  a  lively  interest  in  the  school,  and  secure  to 
it  their  favour  and  support." 

Such  is  the  character,  which  the  laws  and  public  opinion  in 
Prussia  demand  in  a  teacher  of  children  and  youth — a  just  un- 
derstanding, well  cultivated;  an  upright  and  benevolent  heart, 
disciphned  by  a  wise  judgment;  amiable  and  prepossessing 
manners;  generous  and  enlarged  sympathies;  and  a  power  of 
intellect  and  a  warmth  of  feeling  which  act  upon  other  minds, 
and  cause  to  be  comprehended  and  valued  by  others,  the  truth 
he  honours,  and  the  cause  he  serves.  Let  us  review  for  a  brief 
space  the  circumstances  which  have  led  to  this  estimation  of 
the  teacher  and  his  office. 

Our  attention  has  been  turned  in  the  preceding  pages  chiefly 
to  the  government  of  the  Prussian  Schools ;  their  connection 


16  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

with  the  state ;  and  the  course  of  instruction  pursued  in  them. 
No  such  government  could  have  any  power,  nor  could  any 
such  course  of  instruction  be  more  than  a  dead  letter,  if  the 
human  instruments  destined  to  carry  the  whole  into  effect  did 
not  thoroughly  comprehend,  and  heartily  concur  in  the  design 
of  the  institution.  If  the  school  inspectors  should  not  be  en- 
lightened and  benevolent  men,  vigilant  in  the  execution  of  a 
trust  which  they  perfectly  understood,  they  could  not  direct  the 
teacher  in  his  duty,  nor  protect,  encourage,  and  suitably  re- 
ward him  in  the  performance  of  it.  If  a  system  of  education 
in  this  country  should  embrace  the  same  scope  and  design,  it 
would  require  for  its  application  a  superintendence  as  active, 
intelligent,  and  truly  interested  for  the  common  welfare,  as  the 
Prussian  system  presupposes.  And  that  enlightened  superin- 
tendency  could  effect  nothing  without  the  entire  co-operation 
of  teachers  perfectly  capable  of  appreciating  the  value,  and 
the  means  of  the  school  system  in  question.  The  Prussian 
law  assumes  this  fact.  No  other  profession  or  calling  in  life, 
is  allowed  to  be  taken  up  among  us  without  some  prepara- 
tion. When  the  laws  do  not  forbid  it,  conventional  usage 
slowly  admits  an  uninstructed  person  to  the  exercise  of  a  new 
function.  The  trust  in  his  sufficiency,  which  must  fall  in  with 
every  man's  exertions  in  any  new  path,  in  order  to  give  power 
to  them,  is  not  readily  accorded  to  an  unpractised  person.  It 
is  to  be  wished  that  the  same  restraint  of  opinion  were  applied 
to  professional  teaching. 

Institutions  for  the  training  of  schoolmasters  have  been  long 
esteemed  in  Germany  to  be  very  essential  to  the  exercise  of 
that  function.  Schools  for  the  education  of  schoolmasters 
may  be  traced,  according  to  Cousin,  to  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century.  About  1730,  education  and  the  educator  be- 
came objects  of  general  interest  in  that  country.  Lectures  on 
School  Method  then  began  to  be  delivered  regularly  and  ex- 
tensively in  the  country,  and  special  seminaries  for  the  benefit 
of  those  destined  for  teachers  in  the  classical  or  learned 
schools,  gradually  became  attached  to  all  the  principal  univer- 
sities. Before  the  Prussian  law  had  established  the  present 
schools,  a  meritorious  individual,  named  Hecker,  founded  at 


m  PRUSSIA.  tt 

Berlin,  in  1748,  a  nursery  of  popular  instructors,  of  which  in- 
stitution, Frederic  the  Great,  an  earnest  promoter  of  this  vital 
interest  of  humanity,  became  a  patron,  and  enjoined  by  royal 
ordinance,  that  the  country  schools  should  be  supplied  with 
teachers  from  it.  Another  private  establishment  became  soon 
after  a  model-school  for  the  formation  of  teachers.  The  foun- 
der, who  wrought,  during  many  years,  for  a  reform  and 
enlargement  of  popular  education,  by  name  Von  Rochou, 
multiplied  these  schools  on  his  own  estate.  Their  uses  were 
fully  proved,  and,  in  1806,  fourteen  seminaries  for  instruction 
of  teachers,  existed  in  Prussia — in  1833  they  were  nearly 
quadrupled. 

In  Cousin's  report,  the  schools  for  the  instruction  of  teachers 
are  called  Normal  schools.  This  is  the  French  name  for 
them.  The  course  of  study  in  these  schools  lasts  three  years. 
The  probable  wants  of  every  district  in  the  department  is 
ascertained,  and  a  certain  per  cent,  of  new  teachers  is  pre- 
sumed to  be  the  annual  demand  for  them ;  and  the  normal  schools 
take  so  many  pupils  and  no  more  than  can  find  employment  in 
the  country.  The  same  normal  school  trains  masters  for  the 
lower  and  higher  schools.  Ability  and  knowledge  suited  to  the 
latter  being  based  upon  the  elementary  principles  illustrated  in 
the  former,  youths,  who  exhibit  a  decided  talent  and  natural 
aptitude  for  teaching  only,  are  admitted  to  the  normal  schools, 
and  they  enter  them  from  sixteen  to  eighteen  years  of  age. 

The  pupils  of  the  normal  schools  are  expected  to  acquire 
competent  knowledge  of  all  that  is  required  to  be  taught  in  the 
common  schools,  and  to  add  to  that  species  of  information, 
just,  enlarged,  and  practical  notions  on  the  art  of  teaching.  The 
principal  aim  of  the  normal  schools  is  to  form  men,  sound  both 
in  body  and  mind,  and  to  imbue  the  pupils  with  the  sentiment 
of  religion,  and  with  that  zeal  of  love  for  the  duties  of  their 
station  which  is  truly  allied  to  religion ;  which  aims,  by  patient 
continuance  in  a  right  course  of  exertion,  to  promote  the  wel- 
fare of  man  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  God.  The  course  of 
instruction  received  by  the  pupils  of  the  normal  schools  is,  of 
course,  the  same  which  they  are  expected  in  due  time  to  im- 
part; and  during  the  last  year  the  pupils  of  those  schools  are 

3 


18  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

practised  in  a  school  of  experiment  which  is  attached  to  the 
normal  school. 

The  instruction  of  these  schools  is  afforded  at  a  low  price, 
and  the  expense  of  them  is  chiefly  defrayed  by  government. 
Preparation  for  the  vocation  of  a  teacher  is  not  limited  to  the 
normal  schools,  though  they  afford  the  approved  labourers  in 
this  good  work :  and  the  standard  of  fitness  which  is  set  up  in 
them,  is  applied  by  law  to  all  other  preparations  for  the  duty 
of  teaching.  No  normal  school  admits  more  than  sixty  or 
seventy  pupils.  They  are  divided  into  larger  and  smaller 
schools,  and  also  into  Protestant  and  Catholic.  Clergymen, 
or  skilful  schoolmasters  may  train  masters  for  town  or  village 
schools,  but  the  masters  so  trained  come  before  the  authorities 
which  give  license  to  the  pupils  of  normal  schools.  Females 
are  subject  to  a  legal  preparation  for  the  tuition  of  their  own 
sex.  Any  man  of  mature  age,  of  irreproachable  morals,  and 
sincere  piety,  who  understands  the  duties  he  designs  to  fulfil, 
and  gives  satisfactory  proof  of  his  capability,  is  permitted  to 
exercise  the  ofl!ice  of  a  teacher,  and  may  find  employment  in 
the  public  school,  or  establish  a  private  seminary. 

The  election  and  nomination  of  schoolmasters  resides  in  the 
committee,  and  in  the  inspector  of  schools  conjointly.  They 
generally  look  to  the  normal  schools  for  teachers,  and  never  ac- 
cept one  unless  he  is  recommended  according  to  law.  The  ap- 
pointment is  ratified  by  the  provincial  board,  and  sometimes 
by  the  ministerial  authorities.  Teachers  are  solemnly  installed 
in  their  office,  and  it  is  held  by  those  thus  appointed  in  the 
same  place,  according  to  the  mutual  satisfaction  of  both  par- 
ties. The  reaqher  is  sometimes  preferred  to  a  more  lucrative 
place  when  experience  of  his  services  proves  him  to  be  de- 
serving of  promotion.- 

Incompetent  teachers'are  sometimes  returned  to  the  normal 
school  for  additional  preparation,  and  are  again  restored  to 
their  occupation,  but  no  inefficient  teaching  and  discipline  are 
overlooked,  or  permitted  in  the  schools.  It  is  expected  and 
desired  that  the  masters  of  schools  will  be  constantly  im- 
proving their  own  minds.  Their  office  is  to  store  the  minds 
and  sharpen  the  intellect  of  their  pupils,  to  reason  with  them, 


IN  PRUSSIA.  19, 

and  cultivate  their  moral  sentiments — a  stupid  good  man  can 
do  no  such  thing,  but  one  with  his  faculties  all  alive,  and  fur- 
nished with  a  multitude  of  ideas,  alone  is  fit  for  this  service. 

The  directors  of  schools  are  expected  to  be  the  guides  and 
friends  of  the  teachers.  "  They  shall  especially  attend  to  the 
young  masters,"  says  the  Prussian  law,  "  give  them  advice,  set 
them  right,  and  excite  them  to  aim  at  perfection,  by  attending 
to  the  plans  of  more  experienced  masters,  by  frequenting  their 
society,  by  forming  school  conferences,  or  other  meetings  of 
schoolmasters,  and  by  studying  the  best  works  on  education." 

The  provincial  consistory,  that  is,  the  school-board  or  coun- 
cil, are  required  "  urgently  to  address  themselves  to  the  in- 
spectors of  schools  to  promote  associations  of  teachers  in  town 
and  country,  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  alive  a  sense  of  the 
dignity  and  sanctity  of  their  vocation,  of  continuing  their  own 
improvement  by  regular  meetings,  by  consultations,  conversa- 
tions, practical  essays,  dissertations  on  particular  branches  of 
tuition,  and  by  reading  together." 

The  provincial  consistory  may  at  their  pleasure  recall  mas- 
ters highly  susceptible  of  improvement  from  their  school,  and 
place  them  in  some  educational  establishment,  there  to  go 
through  a  more  complete  course  of  tuition  both  in  theory  and 
practice ;  and  particularly  that  they  make  themselves  acquaint- 
ed with  the  latest  improvements  in  the  art  of  teaching ;  and 
also  that  they  may  effect  a  stricter  union  among  themselves, 
and  establish  a  beneficial  interchange  of  learning,  experience, 
and  opinions. 

The  most  eminent  masters,  those  who  are  to  become  di- 
rectors of  normal  schools,  shall,  with  consent,  and  by  sugges- 
tion of  government,  be  enabled  from  the  public  funds  to  seek 
by  travels,  both  in  Prussia,  and  in  other  countries,  more  exact 
and  extended  information  on  the  organisation  of  schools,  and 
their  wants  internal  and  external." 

Clergymen  in  Prussia  are  required  to  study  both  the  theory 
and  practice  of  education,  and  become  acquainted  with  the 
organisation  of  the  public  schools,  and  the  subjects  there 
taught.  At  the  time  of  the  examination  for  the  office  of  a 
pastor,  particular  attention  is  paid  to  the  knowledge  which  the 


20  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

candidate  possesses  on  the  subjects  of  education  and  teaching ; 
and  none  are  admitted  to  orders  who  do  not  give  proof  of  the 
knowledge  necessary  for  the  right  management  and  superin- 
tendence of  schools.  This  is  required  in  order  to  preserve  the 
bond  between  the  church  and  the  school,  so  that  the  duty  of 
the  clergyman  in  the  school  shall  be  performed  with  dignity, 
gentleness,  and  love ;  that  the  clergy  may  honour  the  respect- 
able profession  of  teacher,  in  the  person  of  all  its  members ; 
that  they  may  endeavour  to  secure  to  them  in  their  parishes 
the  consideration  which  is  their  due ;  and  always  support 
them  with  vigour  and  firmness. 

"  Public  schools  are  the  basis  of  popular  instruction  in  Prus- 
sia. The  government  of  that  country  takes  good  care  not  to 
leave  to  chance  or  private  speculation  the  noble  task  of  the 
training  of  youth,  nor  does  primary  instruction  depend  at  all 
upon  private  schools."  But,  notwithstanding  the  paramount 
importance  conceded  to  the  public  institution,  private  establish- 
ments are  permitted,  though  not  without  license,  and  liability 
to  an  inspection  of  the  local  school  commission,  which  may 
inform  the  higher  authority  of  any  great  defect  or  breach  of 
regularity  in  such  schools,  and  they  may  be  suppressed  when 
it  is  clear  that  they  are  not  in  accordance  with  the  general 
system.  The  particular  plan  of  tuition,  the  choice  of  books, 
of  methods,  and  discipline  are  left  entirely  with  the  proprietors 
of  the  schools,  and  they  are  in  fact  benefited  by  the  super- 
intendence they  are  under,  being  commended  and  encouraged 
by  those  who  regard  the  vs^elfare  and  virtue  of  all  persons, 
without  exclusion  of  any  useful  enterprise,  or  private  service 
to  society. 

The  facts  which  illustrate  the  present  applications  of  the 
Prussian  system  remain  to  be  stated.  "  According  to  the 
latest  census,  the  population  of  Prussia  is  12,726,823.  Out 
of  this  population  it  is  computed  that  the  children  from 
seven*  to  fourteen,  in  attendance  at  these  schools,  is  2,043,030, 


•  The  statute  makes  Jive  years  the  legal  period  to  comirKuice  school  attend- 
ance— but  usage  does  not  enforce  the  law  till  the  age  of  seven. 


r 


iir  PRUSSIA.  31 

being  thirteen  fifteenths  of  all  the  children  of  the  age  men- 
tioned. 

The  number  of  elementary  schools  in  1833  was  22,612,  of 

the  monarchy,  and  these  employed  27,749  masters  and  mis- 
tresses. "  We  may  be  certain,"  says  Cousin,  "that  there  does 
not  exist  a  single  human  being  throughout  that  monarchy  who 
does  not  receive  an  education  sufficient  for  his  moral  and  in- 
tellectual wants  so  far  as  school  education  is  sufficient.  This 
result,  glorious  and  admirable  as  it  is,  is  an  incontestable  fact." 
This  was  written  with  the  school  reports  before  his  eyes.  A 
respectable  Prussian  gentleman*  now  in  this  counti-y,  told  the 
writer  that  such  was  rather  the  aim  and  tendency  of  the 
Prussian  system  of  education  than  its  positive  result.  Cousin 
himself  states  that  some  of  the  provinces  are  more  advanced 
than  others,  and  that  *'  Berlin  shares  the  fate  of  all  great 
cities,  where  a  thoroughly  exact  control  is  peculiarly  difficult, 
and  where  the  law  cannot  be  rigidly  enforced."  But  in  Sax- 
ony and  Brandenburg,  "the  taste  for  instruction  is  so  gene- 
rally diffijsed  that  parents  anticipate  the  age  fixed  by  law  for 
sending  their  children  to  school ;"  therefore  in  those  highly 
civilised  provinces,  the  compulsory  law  of  school-obligation  is 
no  compulsion  at  all,  but  is  regarded  as  a  general  blessing,  as 
education  is  in  this  country  with  some  exceptions  that  might 
easily  be  overruled.  There  is  a  sufficient  number  of  normal 
schools  in  the  kingdom  to  supply  almost  all  the  masters  of  the 
public  schools,  elementary  and  intermediate,  so  that  there  is 
no  remote  place,  nor  any  prejudice,  nor  mercenary  exclusion, 
nor  local  poverty,  nor  deficiency  of  superintendence,  nor  lack 
of  labourers,  that  can  leave  human  beings  to  grow  up  in 
heathenism  and  sin,  unpitied  and  untaught — without  care  of 
the  state,  or  beyond  reach  of  the  ennobling  and  renewing  in- 
fluences of  rational  and  Christian  education. 

The  present  occasion  does  not,  perhaps,  permit  a  more 
ample  representation  of  the  rules  and  facts,  which  illustrate 
the  Prussian  system  of  education.  It  only  remains  to  consider 
its  spirit,  and  its  possible  application  to  the  American  people. 

*  Dr.  Julius. 


22  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

For  its  spirit,  what  can  be  more  worthy  of  a  paternal  govern- 
ment,  what  more  salutary  for  the  formation  of  national  cha-  i 
racter,  what  more  preventive  of  the  deterioration  and  cor-  | 
ruption  to  which  uninstructed  and  unregenerate  man  te^ds  ? —  j 
M.  Cousin  truly  says,  "  the  whole  fabric  rests  on  the  firm  -i 
basis  of  Christian  love."  The  principles  which  enter  into  the  ) 
institution  are  strictly  in  accord  with  the  universality  and  ~\ 
beneficence  of  Christianity,  and  the  system  has  the  beautiful  ] 
character  of  truth  stamped  upon  it. — It  is  an  experiment  not  ^ 
a  speculation — it  is  education  "  actually  given  and  actually^ 
received."  And  then  how  admirable  are  its  extensiveness  and 
thoroughness. — It  is  not  the  manna  of  the  seventh  day,  the  I 
provision  of  emergency,  but  the  bread  of  every  day — it  is'i 
not  generosity,  it  is  justice — it  is  not  a  gift,  but  the  payment  ■ 
of  a  debt — it  is  not  a  charity  that  celebrates  the  giver,  but  i 
an  obligation  of  the  parent  state,  to  the  dependent  child,  and  | 
blesses  alike  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes  it.  It  makes  , 
law  a  magnificent  benefactor  to  all  that  are  the  organs  and'] 
the  receivers  of  this  great  bounty,  and  unalienable  blessing,  "■ 
and  excludes  from  despotism  itself  every  trait  of  severity  and 
unreasonableness,  6f  favour  and  preference,  of  neglected  mercy,  ; 
or  selfish  domination. 

But  if  these  schools  only  taught  letters  and  sciences,  if  they  '' 
formed  no  moral  principles  and  habits ;  if  they  took  no  cog-  : 
nisance  of  the  laws  of  duty ;  none  of  the  defenceless  state  of-^ 
a  mind  uninformed  of  the  evil  that  is  in  the  world  ;  if  they  " 
never  turned  the  attention  of  the  young  to  the  Providence  of ; 
God,  and  his  divine  attributes;  if  they  never  connected  the^i 
present  life  to  the  eternal ;  if  they  aflforded  no  expositions  of  j 
morality  ;  if  they  presented  it  only  in  negations  ;  if  they  re- . 
ferred  it  exclusively  to  the  Sunday,  the  minister,  the  church, 
the  casual  Sunday-school,  and  the  self-culture  of  ripe  age — to^ 
what  mere  worldliness  and  technicality,  to  what  selfishness  > 
and  implied  materialism,  to  what  small  effects  and  low  pur-  i 
poses,  would  they  be  employed,  and  how  much  would  they  '■> 
leave  undone,  which  their  broad  policy,  and  tried  efforts  ac-  : 
tually  accomplish  1  i 

It  has  been  shown  that  in  the  German  schools  great  libertyj 


IN  PRUSSIA.  23 

is  allowed  in  the  use  of  instruments  of  instruction.     Masters 
are  invited  to  progress  and  improvement,  and  to  the  examina- 
tion of  new^  elementary  works,  and  though  they  cannot  adopt 
new  works  without  concurrence  of  the  school-commission  that 
is  "  free  to  adopt  the  best  books  as  they  appear ;"  and  the 
lesson-books  are  carefully  selected  by  the  committee,  and   re- 
ferred, previous  to  the  adoption. of  them,  to  higher  authorities 
— but  cheapness,  or  any  inferior  consideration,  does  not  hinder 
these  several  authorities  in  their  preference  of  what  is  abso- 
lutely best,  for  it  is  their  principle  to  "  choose  the  methods 
best  adapted  to  the  growth  of  the  human  mind  ;  the  methods 
which  generally  and  constantly  enlarge  the   understanding   of 
the  children,  and  not  such  as  instil  merely  mechanical  know- 
ledge."    Under  the  influence  of  such  principles,   the   teachers 
seek  for  the  best  books,  they  look  confidently  to  the  assistance 
of  the  committee  for  procuring  them,  and  the  latter  may  cal- 
culate upon  the  judgment  of  the  higher  commission  for  appro- 
bation of  their  judgment.     In  this  sense  co-operation  is  power; 
the  judgment  of  all  parties  concerned  is  mutually  helpful  in 
procuring  the  best  instruments  of  instruction.     School  books 
are  accounted  of  immense  value  in  Germany.     Mr.  Bulwer, 
addressing  himself  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  says,  "While  we  [the 
English]  have  so  many  schools  organised,  and  so  little  is 
taught  in  them,  just  let  me  lead  your  attention  to  the  four 
common  class-books,  used  in  all  the  popular  schools  of  Saxe 
Weimar."     Adaptation — Connection — Progress,  are  the  prin- 
ciples upon  which  they  are  formed.     Morality  and  religion, 
not  sectarian  in  the  least,  but  the  truths   acknowledged  in  all 
religions,  the  laws  of  the  external  world,  and   of  the  human 
constitution,  enter  into  their  plan.     The  culture  of  all  the  facul- 
ties, the  conscience,  affections,  reason,  and  imagination,  is  at- 
tempted in  a  certain  measure,  that  is,  the  measure  of  probable 
and  possible  developement ;  and  they  are  perfectly  intelligible  to 
young  minds  of  ordinary  power.    Such  books  are  an  invaluable 
help  to  a  rational  and  faithful  teacher.     Of  the  German  books, 
Mr.  B.  says,  "  such  is  the  foundation  of  the  lofty,  united,  and  in- 
tellectual spirit  which  distinguishes  the  subjects  of  Saxe  Wei- 
mar," and,  we  might  add,  not  of  Saxe  Weimar  alone,  but  of 


24  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

every  community  put  under  the  influence  of  this  peculiar  mode 
of  culture. 

Can  the  Prussian  mode  of  education  be  appUed  to  this  coun- 
try 1  It  is  difficult  to  give  answer  to  this  question.  It  has 
been  adopted  in  France,  by  recommendation  of  Cousin,  a  man 
whose  name  stands  first  as  a  benefactor  of  nations  in  this  age, 
but  not  without  national  modification  ;  and  Cousin  believed 
that  after  ten  years  of  experiment  it  would  require  new  adap- 
tations to  the  French  people.  We  may  not  be  able  to  adopt 
its  whole  economy,  it  may  not  be  desirable  to  us.  We  can 
only  follow  its  suggestions,  for  it  requires  the  word  of  legisla- 
tion to  order  its  operation,  and  it  requires  the  public  suffrage 
to  receive  it.  In  Germany,  Francke  and  Von  Rochou  showed 
the  importance  and  practicableness  of  improved  schools  by 
forming  schools  for  teachers  at  their  own  expense.  A  very 
able  writer,  Basedow,  urged  upon  the  public  mind  new  me- 
thods, and  constructed,  also,  at  his  own  expense,  new  school 
books,  and  illustrations  of  the  sciences ;  and  a  sovereign  prince 
aided  their  enterprises.  And  this  for  the  special  advantage  of 
a  people  ready  for  the  reception  of  the  benefit,  but  which  it 
has  taken  nearly  a  century  to  impart  fully  to  them.  We  are, 
it  is  true,  in  a  different  state  already  much  advanced  in  the 
use  of  science  and  letters,  and  feeling  the  importance  of  them 
to  our  whole  nation,  and  to  posterity  ;  and,  we  are,  severally, 
and  separately,  as  trustees  of  schools,  or  principals  of  them, 
allowed  much  liberty  in  our  function.  We  are,  in  a  great 
measure,  able  to  enlarge*  its  uses,  exalt  its  influence,  and 
choose  its  instruments. 

Before  education  in  this  country  can  produce  its  best  fruits 
it  must  be  reformed.  This  is  not  said  to  depreciate  what  is 
good,  but  to  increase  that  which  is  good,  and  correct  what- 
ever is  imperfect  in  our  practice.  In  the  United  States  gene- 
rally all  the  people  can  read,  but  all  over  the  countiy  there  is 
a  vast  misapplication  and  deficiency  of  means  which  might 
turn  education  to  better  account.  In  some  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, multitudes  are  growing  up  in  total  ignorance,  and  almost 
every  where,  the  common  schools  are  far  below  what  they 
ought  to  be.     No  compulsory  law  is  necessary  in  any  part  of 


I 


IN  PRUSSIA.  25 


the  United  States,  for  inducing  the  people  to  send  children 
to  good  schools ;  but  in  all  parts  the  schools  would  derive  much 
of  their  efficacy  from  the  inspection  and  regulation  of  an  en- 
lightened and  vigilant  public  authority.     When  once  the  legal 
managers  of  schools  shall  become  acquainted  v^^ith  the  means 
of  affording  education  of  the  best  quality  to  the  people,  and 
shall  make  it  appear  that  they  endeavour  to  procure  it  for 
them,  parents  will  feel  perfect  confidence  in  the  public  institu- 
tions, and  private  ones  will  emulate  their  excellence.     In  the 
present  state  of  our  popular  education  those  who  can  possibly 
procure  it,  obtain  other  and  casual  instruction  for  their  child- 
ren, of  necessity,  much  inferior  to  that  which  the  collective 
means  of  any  community,  wisely  and  faithfully  appropriated, 
might  afford  to  all  the  children,  provided  they  were  assorted 
in  a  natural  classification,  and  instructed  according  to  their 
different  stages  of  progress,  by  judicious  persons,  with  suitable, 
vaT^ed,  and  progressive  books  in  their  power.     At  present  a 
large  portion  of  the  children,  withdrawn  by  pride  or  principle, 
from  the  popular  schools,  receive  a  substituted  instruction,  of 
which  no  enlightened  cognisance  is  taken,  and  they  are  at  the 
mercy  of  speculators  ;    whilst  those  who  must  rely  upon  the 
public  institution  often  suffer  from  it ;    as  the  disesteem  in 
which  it  is  held  serves  to  depreciate  it ;  and  the  numbers  with- 
drawn, which  might  countenance  and  illustrate  a  good  system, 
are  so  many  supports  removed. 

Schoolmasters  worthily  educated,  adequately  paid,  and  en- 
couraged and  assisted  by  intelligent  and  faithful  supervisors, 
would  effect  great  improvements  in  society.  The  qualifica- 
tions and  suitable  education  of  schoolmasters  must  depend 
upon  what  they  are  expected  to  teach,  and  how  they  are  re- 
garded in  society,  as  well  as  how  they  are  paid.  It  has  been 
shown  how  much  dignity  the  German  system  attaches  to  the 
profession,  and  how  it  is  cherished  and  guarded.  Acknow- 
ledged want  of  good  teachers,  and  proper  respect  paid  to  their 
wants  and  their  happiness,  will  create  a  supply  of  them.  It 
may  be  objected,  that  such  education  as  the  projectors  of  im- 
proved systems  demand  for  the  people,  cannot  be  paid  for. 
Every  thing  else  is  paid  for,  according  to  its  quality.     All  func- 

4 


26  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

tions  of  government  and  magistracy ;  all  military  defences, 
and  penal  inflictions  are  paid  for.  Some  of  these  would  cost 
less,  and  some  would  fall  into  disuse,  if  knowledge  cost  more. 
But  if  no  more  should  be  paid,  than  is  now  paid  for  education,  if 
persons  were  thoroughly  taught  how  to  teach,  and  what  to  teach, 
they  would  teach  well  as  cheaply  as  they  now  teach  ill,  and 
they  would  be  as  well  satisfied  as  they  now  are.  Of  the  use- 
ful and  contented  teachers  of  the  humblest  cottagers  of  the 
poorest  villages  in  Germany,  Mrs.  Austin,  says — "  if  ever  po- 
verty appeared  on  earth,  serene,  contented,  lofty,  beneficent, 
graceful,  it  is  here.  Here  we  see  men,  in  the  very  spring  time 
of  life,  so  far  from  being  made,  as  we  are  told  that  man  must 
be  made;  restless,  and  envious,  and  discontented  by  instruc- 
tion, taking  indigence  and  obscurity  to  their  hearts  for  life  ; 
raised  above  their  poor  neighbours  in  education,  only  that  they 
may  become  the  servants  of  all,  and  may  train  the  lowliest 
children  in  a  sense  of  the  dignity  of  man,  and  the  beaut^  of 
creation,  in  the  love  of  God,  and  of  virtue."  Who  will  say 
that  the  function  of  a  teacher  is  not  a  holy  and  a  high  voca- 
tion, and  that  he  is  not  a  minister  of  God  for  good"? 

Who  shall  afford  a  standard  to  teachers,  and  a  method  of 
attainment  1  Teachers  are  not  likely  to  do  it.  Each  for  the 
most  part  pactises  under  circumstances  of  too  much  restraint 
and  obscurity,  to  enable  him  to  set  up  any  very  superior  me- 
thods or  means  of  teaching,  or  to  give  them  wide  efficiency. 
Those  who  can  address  the  public  through  the  press — Patrons 
and  trustees  of  schools,  have  a  better  opportunity  to  inform  the 
public  extensively  on  this  subject,  and,  by  their  influence,  to 
establish  schools  for  teachers;  to  patronise  good  works  de- 
signed for  the  use  of  the  young ;  to  expose  all  imposture  and 
unfaithfulness  in  teacning,  and  all  lifeless  mechanism;  in  short, 
to  strengthen  the  hands  and  encourage  the  hearts  of  upright 
and  enlightened  teachers  of  both  sexes,  and  to  reject  and  ex- 
clude all  others;  and  thus  to  form  the  coming  age  to  a  higher 
moral  intelligence,  and  superior  character  than  this,  our  day 
assumes. 

That  part  of  the  Prussian  system  of  education  most  inimita- 
table  by  us  is  the  adoption  of  rational  school  books.     The 


IN  PRUSSIA.  27 

teaching  to  read  and  the  practice  of  the  art  of  reading,  when 
acquired,  is  a  great  opportunity  to  inculcate  useful  truth.  So 
persuaded  are  the  Germans  that  the  sense  of  words,  whenever 
presented  to  children  as  the  means  of  information,  should  be 
perfectly  clear  to  them,  that  they  do  not  give  them  a  written 
copy  to  imitate;  which  has  not  obvious  and  applicable  mean- 
ing, nor  a  book  to  read  which  does  not  thoroughly  explain 
itself;  nor  a  lesson  that  is  not  appropriate  to  their  real  cir- 
cumstances, or  their  probable  development.  They  condescend 
to  the  young  mind,  and  yet  are  in  advance  of  it.  They  ad- 
dress curiosity  and  all  the  faculties  at  proper  times,  and  inter- 
sperse all  narrative  and  all  reasoning  with  interrogations  that 
exercise  the  moral  and  rational  judgment  continually. 

A  series  of  school  books  upon  this  plan  will  be  referred  to 
and  described,  after  we  have  given  a  brief  outline  of  the  Nor- 
mal Schools  of  Prussia. 


NORMAL  SCHOOLS 


IN   PRUSSIA. 


One  of  the  most  judicious,  elegant,  and  convincing  articles, 
ever  written  on  the  subject  of  public  instruction,  is  Mrs. 
Austin's  preface  to  the  Report  of  Cousin.  Her  mind  perfectly 
apprehends  the  universal  features  of  this  beautiful  system.  She 
sees  that  of  knowledge,  all  cannot  provide  for  all,  and  that  the 
mind  that  feels  the  want,  cannot  procure  the  supply.  She 
knows  that  the  wise  must  have  pity  upon  the  ignorant,  and 
them  that  are  out  of  the  way,  and  that  they  must  enlighten 
the  blind,  and  raise  the  low.  She  believes,  also,  that  national 
virtue  is  obtained  and  cherished  by  general  intelligence,  that 
neither  grow  spontaneously,  but  are  a  result  of  the  care  and 
benificence  of  the  most  enlightened  and  disinterested  spirits  of 
a  country.  To  such  minds  all  that  she  says  is  properly  ad- 
dressed. She  believes  that  such  exist  in  the  stations  of  middle 
life,  and  she  writes  to  just  thinkers,  and  to  those  who  are  per- 
fectly sincere,  in  morals,  whoever  they  are,  and  wherever  they 
may  be,  and  can  exert  any  influence  to  those  truly  desirous  to  dis- 
pel error  and  enlarge  the  limits  of  truth  and  right  reason,  to  those 
who  would  extend  and  secure  the  happiness  of  a  people,  who 
can  alone  become  zealous  of  good  works  through  information 
of  immutable  principles  of  right  and  wrong. 

Mrs.  Austin  believes  that  in  England  a  great  fault  is  com- 
mitted in  the  offering  of  selfish  motives,  of  false  ambition,  to 
young  persons;  we  wish  that  we  in  America  were  free  from, 
this  error.  The  selfish  principle  in  human  hearts  is  strong 
enough  in  itself,  without  being  commended  and  praised  as  a 


IN  PRUSSIA.  29 

salutary  incentive  to  intellectual  labour.  Truth,  for  its  own 
sake,  wisdom,  because  its  ways  are  pleasantness;  benevolence, 
because  it  gives  and  gains  the  greatest  good ;  a  feeling  of  bro- 
therl5^  kindness  and  of  public  spirit,  are  the  influences  which 
that  admirable  writer  commends  to  be  infused  into  the  percep- 
tive and  practical  parts  of  popular  education.  In  this  country, 
in  entire  opposition  to  this  liberal  and  safe  course,  the  visitei's 
of  schools  often  address  the  most  selfish  and  deceptive  motives 
to  boys,  as  inducements  to  diligence  and  perseverance.  "  You 
have  heard,"  sometimes  say  these  counsellors,  "  of  the  wise 
Franklin,  who  became  one  of  the  chief  men  of  this  nation ;  a 
minister  from  our  government  to  Europe,  who  lived  and  died, 
honoured  and  admired  by  all  who  knew  or  heard  of  him. 
This  man  was  a  mechanic — a  printer;  but  by  means  of  his 
industry,  and  fidelity  in  whatever  he  undertook,  by  the  infor- 
mation of  all  kinds  with  which  he  stored  his  mind,  he  rose  to 
this  extraordinary  eminence  among  his  fellow  citizens.  You 
have  heard  also  of  the  good  Roger  Sherman,  of  Connecticut ; 
of  his  independence  and  honesty;  his  excellent  understanding 
and  judgment.  He  was  bred  a  shoemaker;  but  he  was  not  des- 
tined to  spend  his  days  at  the  last.  His  superior  mind,  and 
correct  notions  of  politics,  obtained  for  him  the  honour  to  aid 
in  the  public  councils ;  to  attain  to  many  dignified  places ;  to 
stand  high  in  the  esteem  of  the  greatest  men  in  the  land.  These 
examples  are  set  before  you  that  you  may  do  likewise;  that 
you  may  be  as  well  informed  and  as  faithful  as  these  honoura- 
ble persons,  and  that  you  may  secure  to  yourselves  equal  ad- 
vantages. And  if  you  should  resemble  these  great  men,  what 
is  to  hinder  you  from  being  as  fortunate  as  they  wei'e;  as 
much  distinguished  1  How  many  of  the  richest  men  in  this 
country ;  the  greatest  merchants  and  lawyers  in  it,  have  been 
jHxxr  boys!  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  you  from  following 
their  examples,  and  attaining  to  their  good  fortune.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  you  will  not  forget  this  truth,  that  you  will  not  ne- 
glect your  opportunities,  and  come  short  of  their  success  in 
the  world."  Such  is  esteemed  by  many  to  be  a  very  sensible 
lecture. 
Now  it  must  occur  to  every  sound  mind  that  this  is  false  in 


30*  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

principle.  If  all  the  printers  in  Franklin's  time,  or  one-tenth 
of  them,  had  resembled  him  in  all  points  of  sufficiency  for  pub- 
lic duties;  and  if  all  the  shoemakers,  or  any  number  of  them, 
in  Connecticut,  had  been  as  wise  as  Mr.  Sherman,  there 'was 
but  one  mission  for  the  printers,  and  one  seat  in  congress  for 
the  shoemakers.  And  though  the  merit  of  all  had  been  exact- 
ly the  same,  the  reward  of  that  merit,  did  it  really  consist  in 
power  or  place,  could  not  possibly  be  accorded  to  all.  Print- 
ing is  more  in  request  than  diplomacy,  and  shoes  are  more 
needed  than  legislation;  that  is,  a  certain  sort  of  want  is  more 
generally  felt  and  acknowledged,  more  imperious  in  its  de- 
mands, than  another  class  of  wants  in  the  community.  A  very 
few  persons,  indeed,  relatively  to  the  whole,  can  supply  the 
rarer  want;  and  a  very  large  number  are  absolutely  necessary 
to  supply  the  daily,  physical,  and  outward  need  of  society. 
The  common  provisions  of  education,  and  the  common  chance 
of  success  in  life,  must  be  for  the  latter  chiefly  in  their  original 
vocation.  So  few  are  the  high  places  of  earth;  and  young 
persons  are  so  quick-sighted  in  perceiving  "that  which  is  set 
on  a  liill;"  and  so  very  ready  of  their  own  accord  to  explore 
the  upward  path,  how  hard  soever  to  climb,  that  it  is  more 
just,  and  more  judicious,  to  set  before  children  rational  and 
probable  views  of  future  Ufe  than  the  stimulants  of  a  vain  and 
deceitful  ambition;  ambition,  which  often  makes  them  self-seek- 
ing, encroaching,  and  vain-glorious  prematurely,  and  too  often 
leaves  them  in  the  end,  without  any  moral  correction  in  the 
mind,  a  prey  to  the  bitterest  disappointment. 

This  truth  is  set  forth  with  convincing  power  by  the  trans- 
lator of  Cousin.  "  It  seems  to  me,"  says  Mrs.  Austin,  "  that 
we  are  guilty  of  great  inconsistency  as  to  the  ends  and  objects 
of  education.  How  industriously  have  not  its  most  able  and 
most  zealous  champions  been  continually  instilling  into  the 
minds  of  the  people  that  education  is  the  way  to  advancement, 
that «  knowledge  is  power,'  that  a  man  cannot  '  better  himself 
without  some  learning  !  And  then  we  complain,  that  educa- 
tion will  set  them  above  their  station,  disgust  them  with 
labour,  make  them  ambitious,  envious,  dissatisfied !  We  must 
reap  as  we  sow.     We  set  before  their  eyes  objects  the  most 


IN  PRUSSIA.  31 

tempting  to  the  desires  of  the  most  uncultivated  men,  we'  urge 
them  on  to  the  acquirement  of  knowledge,  by  holding  out  the 
hope  that  knowledge  will  enable  them  to  grasp  these  objects : 
if  their  minds  are  coiTupted  by  the  nature  of  the  aim,  and  im- 
bittered  by  the  failure  which  must  be  the  lot  of  the  mass,  who 
is  to  blame  ? 

"  If,  instead  of  nurturing  expectations  which  cannot  be  ful- 
filled, and  turning  the  mind  on  a  track  which  must  lead  to  a 
sense  of  continual  disappointment,  and  thence  of  wrong,  we 
were  to  hold  out  the  appropriate  and  attainable,  nay,  unfailing 
ends  of  a  good  education  ;  the  gentle  and  kindly  sympathies  ; 
the  sense  of  self-respect,  and  of  the  respect  of  fellow  men ; 
the  free  exercise  of  the  intellectual  faculties :  the  gratification 
of  a  curiosity  that  '  grows  by  what  it  feeds  on,'  and  yet  finds 
food  for  ever ;  the  power  of  regulating  the  habits  and  the  busi- 
ness of  life,  so  as  to  extract  the  greatest  possible  portion  of 
comfort  out  of  small  means  ;  the  refining  and  traquillising  en- 
joyment of  the  beautiful  in  nature  and  art,  and  the  kindred 
perception  of  the  beauty  and  nobility  of  virtue  ;  the  strength- 
ening consciousness  of  duty  fulfilled  ;  and,  to  crown  all,  '  the 
peace  that  passeth  all  understanding ;'  if  we  directed  their  as- 
pirations this  way,  it  is  probable  that  we  should  not  have  to 
complain  of  being  disappointed,  nor  they  of  being  deceived. 
Who  can  say  that  wealth  can  purchase  better  things  than 
these  ?  and  who  can  say  that  they  are  not  within  the  reach  of 
every  man  of  sound  body  and  mind,  who,  by  labour  not  de- 
structive of  either,  can  procure,  for  himself  and  his  family, 
food,  clothing,  and  habitation." 

The  design  of  all  popular  education  is  not  to  raise  up  ex- 
traordinary individuals,  but  to  exalt  the  nation,  to  elevate 
whole  classes  of  people.  Not  to  make  the  American  people 
or  any  particular  nation,  superior  to  other  people  in  physical 
resources  and  power,  but  to  develope  the  whole  faculties  of 
the  human  being  and  of  aggregate  man  ;  to  multiply  his  de- 
fences against  evil,  and  his  capabilities  of  enjoyment ;  to  afford 
to  every  man  security  and  enjoyment  of  what  belongs  to  him- 
self individually,  and  to  promote  among  all  men  mutual  and 
safe  confidence  in  their  fellow  men ;  to  enlarge  the  commerce 


32  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

of  good  offices,  and  multiply  the  interchanges  of  thought  and 
affection  in  human  society ;  and  this  must  be  done  with  some 
regard  to  the  structure  of  civilised  society. 

All  men  are  moral  beings ;  all  have  the  same  rules  of  right 
and  wrong  to  apply  to  their  own  circumstances.  The  cir- 
cumstances of  different  classes  of  men  however  are,  and  must 
be,  different.  There  ought  to  be  extra  provisions  for  extraor- 
dinary means  to  obtain,  and  extraordinary  capacity  to  profit 
by,  but  there  should  be  besides  in  every  well  regulated  state, 
one  ample  institution  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  people,  supe 
rior  to  all  private  and  selfish  dealings,  in  the  sale  and  barter 
of  knowledge.  This  should  supply  what  is  wanting,  correct 
what  is  wrong,  and  prevent  what  else  might  be  depraving,  in 
private  and  casual  education.  Such  an  institution  Prussia 
has  established  for  all  her  children,  and  it  is  tending  to  produce 
its  natural  effects.  Such  an  institution  France  has  imitated 
from  this  great  national  experiment.  Time,  the  demonstrator 
of  all  true  politics,  and  of  all  human  projects,  well  or  ill  de- 
vised, will  show  with  how  much  efficacy  in  improving  the 
morals  and  manners  of  her  people.  Could  this  institution  fully 
accomplish  its  proposed  ends,  what  wise  legislator  would  re- 
fuse to  urge  similar  provisions  for  the  public  virtue  and  happi- 
ness upon  any  community  now  destitute  of  them. 

The  direct  instruments  of  this  system  of  education  are,  first 
of  all,  qualified  teachers.  How  these  are  disciplined  and  pre- 
pared for  their  function  will  be  most  correctly  shown  in  the 
representation  of  Cousin,  who  has  described,  in  a  very  interest- 
ing manner,  some  of  the  institutions  which  exist  in  Prussia  for 
the  education  of  schoolmasters. 

One  of  the  most  important  features  of  the  normal  school  is 
the  function  of  its  head  or  director.  "  It  is  the  constant  prac- 
tice of  the  ministry  in  Prussia, — to  be  scrupulous  to  the  last 
degree  in  the  choice  of  a  director,  and  then  to  leave  him  great 
latitude  at  the  beginning,  with  reservation  to  the  minister  to 
judge  of  the  whole  by  the  results,  and  to  interpose  his  author- 
ity after  full  knowledge  of  facts." 


IN  PRUSSIA.  S3 

Extract  from  the  Instructions  for  the  Director  of  the  Printary 
Normal  School  of  Potsdam. 

"  These  instructions,  which  prescribe  the  duties  of  the  di- 
rector, are  rather  calculated  to  suggest  the  point  of  view  un- 
der which  he  ought  to  regard  his  office,  than  to  define  his 
functions  and  occupations  with  precision.  These  may  un- 
dergo various  modifications  from  unforeseen  cirmstances ;  and 
the  director  of  an  establishment  ought  not  to  adhere  to  the 
literal  meaning  of  official  rules,  but  to  be  guided  by  more 
large  and  elevated  conceptions,  and  wherever  the  law  is  silent, 
to  supply  the  deficiency  from  his  own  intelligence. 

"  All  that  a  rational  and  a  pious  father  of  a  family  is  to  his 
household,  the  director  ought  to  be  to  the  whole  establishment 
and  to  each  of  its  members  ;  the  kind  friend  and  colleague  of 
all  the  pupils  and  masters  who  are  animated  with  a  true  feel- 
ing of  their  duties ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  severe  and  inflexi- 
ble ruler  of  those  who  refuse  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  reason 
and  of  religion. 

"  He  ought  to  pay  attention  to  the  smallest  things  as  well  as 
to  the  greatest,  that  nothing  may  trouble  the  harmony  of  the 
entire  machine  committed  to  his  watchful  guidance. 

He  is  bound  especially — 

"  1.  To  manage  the  pecuniary  affairs  of  the  establishment. 

"  2.  To  superintend  the  domestic  economy  and  the  steward ; 
to  have  an  eye  to  the  library  and  to  all  the  instruments,  &c. 
necessary  for  the  school ; 

"  3.  To  preserve  and  add  to  these,  and  to  give  an  account 
of  the  funds  appropriated  to  the  purchase  of  books,  &c. ; 

"  4.  To  carry  on  the  correspondence,  to  make  the  report  to 
the  school-board  on  the  normal  school  and  the  school  attached 
to  it ;  to  send  in  a  list  of  candidates  for  admission,  to  keep  the 
archives,  &c.  ; 

"  5.  To  call  up,  examine,  and  choose  the  candidates  for  ad- 
mission, with  the  advice  of  the  masters  ; 

"  6.  To  draw  out  and  present  plans  of  study,  after  having 
referred  them  to  the  conference  of  schoolmasters,  and  to  dis- 

5 


34  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  IN  PRUSSIA. 

• 

tribute  and  arrange  the  subjects  of  instruction,  according  to 
the  plan  approved  by  the  competent  authorities ; 

"  7.  To  overlook  and  direct  the  masters,  both  in  their  moral 
conduct  and  their  functions  ; 

"  8.  To  organise  and  direct  the  schoolmasters'  conferences, 
and  to  dravsf  up  prospectuses  for  them ; 

"  9.  To  fix  and  direct  the  public  examinations  of  the  normal 
school  and  the  school  attached  ; 

"  10.  To  maintain  the  high  discipline  of  the  normal  school, 
and  of  the  school  attached  by  all  possible  means,  even  to  the 
expulsion  of  a  student,  after  the  decision  of  the  conference  of 
masters ;  subject,  however,  to  the  obligation  of  making  an  im- 
mediate and  circumstantial  report  to  the  competent  authorities. 

"  It  is  impossible  more  completely  to  justify  the  confidence 
of  the  ministry  than  Mr.  Striez,  the  director  of  the  Potsdam 
School  has  done.  From  year  to  year  the  normal  school  con- 
fided to  his  care  has  made  extraordinary  progress,  and  in 
1826  he  laid  before  the  public  an  account  of  it,  which  excited 
the  liveliest  interest.  This  account  I  place  before  you ;  it  will 
give  you  an  accurate  and  complete  idea  of  the  material  and 
moral  condition — of  the  whole  internal  life — of  one  of  the 
best  primary  normal  schools  of  Prussia. 


REPORT 

OF   THE 

PRIMARY  NORMAL  SCHOOL 

AT  POTSDAM, 

BY  F.  L.  G.  STRIEZ,  DIRECTOR  OF  THIS  SCHOOL  AND  MINISTER  OF  THE 

GOSPEL. 


HISTORICAL  STATEMENT. 

"  Until  the  middle  of  the  last  century  there  were  no  primary 
normal  schools  in  Brandenburg.  The  schoolmasters  were  ap- 
pointed by  the  parishes,  either  with  the  approbation  of  the  au- 
thorities or  without  their  knowledge,  and  were  all  drawn  from 
the  primary  schools  then  established.  All  that  was  required 
of  these  masters,  who  were  chiefly  mechanics,  was  to  be  able 
to  read,  say  the  catechism,  sing  tolerably  a  few  well-known 
psalm  tunes,  and  to  write  and  cipher  a  little.  Numbers  of 
shepherds,  employed  in  summer-time  in  keeping  sheep,  during 
winter  assumed  the  office  of  teachers  of  youth.  The  nobility 
used  generally  to  bestow  the  place  of  schoolmaster  (if  it  was 
at  their  disposal,)  on  their  valets  or  grooms,  as  a  reward  for 
past  services.  The  primary  schools  in  towns  sometimes  had 
masters  a  little  better  informed,  but  even  they  had  neither 
good  taste  nor  method  in  their  manner  of  teaching. 

"  Johann  JuHus  Hecker,  chief  councillor  of  the  consistory  at 
Berlin,  and  minister  of  Trinity  church,  was  the  first  who  un- 
dertook to  train  young  men  for  the  art  of  teaching.  With  this 
view  he  founded  a  school  to  supply  masters  for  his  own  dio- 
cese. 

«  This  establishment,  founded  in  1748,  remained  for  some 
time  a  private  one  ;  in  the  year  1753,  it  was  raised  to  the  rank 
of  a  royal  primary  normal  school  for  schoolmasters  and  parish- 
clerks.    The  provincial  authorities  were  enjoined,  in  a  Cabinet 


36  PUBLIC   INSTRUCTION 

order  published  the  1st  of  October,  1753,  to  select,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  members  of  this  establishment  for  the  royal 
places  of  parish-clerk  and  schoolmaster. 

"  But  this  primary  normal  school  was  still  far  from  meeting 
the  constantly  increasing  wants  of  the  province,  and  little  me- 
rited the  name  of  a  royal  school.  The  pupils,  scattered  in  all 
parts  of  the  capital,  were  not  properly  watched  nor  directed 
in  their  studies.  Being  all  mechanics,  they  laboured  at  their 
trades  rather  than  their  studies,  and  w^ere  besides  exposed  to 
the  influence  of  the  corporation  spirit,*  and  to  the  seductions 
of  a  great  town.  In  fact,  the  time  which  they  devoted  to  their 
studies  at  the  normal  school  was  in  general  too  short  to  aflbrd 
any  hope  of  eflecting  the  end  proposed. 

"  In  1771,  Frederick  the  Great  appropriated  4000  crowns, 
interest  upon  a  capital  of  100,000  crowns,  to  the  improvement 
of  the  country  schools  in  the  Electoral  March ;  he  used  on 
this  occasion  the  following  expressions  :  '  Primary  education, 
especially  in  the  country,  has  been  hitherto  much  neglected  ; 
it  becomes  imperative  to  remove  the  bad  masters,  and  replace 
them  by  competent  men.'  Understanding  that  the  schools 
were  better  organised  in  Saxony,  he  ordered  that  masters 
should  be  drawn  thence,  and  put  in  the  place  of  those  whom  it 
might  have  seemed  fit  to  remove,  in  spile  of  their  being  de- 
pendents on  the  crown  or  on  the  nobles.  An  increase  of 
salary  was  to  be  allowed  to  the  new  masters,  from  the  special 
fund  lately  created ;  and  the  individuals  most  distinguished 
among  them  to  be  held  out  to  the  primary  normal  school  as 
models  for  masters  in  training. 

"  But  the  benevolent  intention  of  the  king  could  not  be  en- 
tirely reaUsed ;  either  the  persons  intrusted  with  its  execution 
were  negligent,  or  they  found  it  difficult  to  draw  skilful  masters 
from  Saxony.  To  obviate  this  inconvenience,  it  was  deter- 
mined to  place  in  the  schools  which  were  susceptible  of  reform, 
theological  candidates,  who  should  fill  the  office  of  masters. 

"  This  arrangement  not  answering  the  purpose,  some  lesser 
normal  schools,  indeed,  sprang  up  insensibly  at  Berlin ;  but 

*  In  Germany  the  members  of  each  trade,  till  very  recently,  composed  a  Zunft^ 
ai— guild,  or  corporation.— Transl, 


IN  PRUSSIA.  37 

either  they  were  not  of  long  continuance,  or  they  remained  un- 
important ;  or  else  they  had  no  other  view  than  to  form  mas- 
ters for  Berlin  and  the  neighbouring  towns  of  an  inferior 
order." 

Such  was  the  state  of  things  when,  in  1809,  the  regency  of 
Potsdam,  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  and  the  school-deputa- 
tion began  to  give  a  new  direction  to  the  system  hitherto  fol- 
lowed in  primary  instruction. 

Nothing  was  more  strongly  felt  than  the  want  of  good  mas- 
ters. Exact  information  w&s  eagerly  sought  as  to  the  condi- 
tion of  the  primary  normal  school  at  Berlin,  and  in  1810, 
great  improvements  were  eflected  in  this  establishment.  Upon 
their  success  depended,  in  part,  whether  this  school  should  be 
continued  and  remain  at  Berlin,  or  whether  it  should  be  trans- 
ferred to  another  place.  Now,  on  experiment,  the  measures 
adopted  appeared  inapplicable  to  the  establishment  at  Berlin, 
and  the  primary  normal  school  of  Berlin  was  superseded  by 
that  of  Potsdam. 

PRESENT  ORGANISATION  OF  THE  NORMAL  SCHOOL. 
1.  Direction  and  Inspection. 

The  normal  school  and  its  annexed  school  are  placed  under 
a  director  or  principal,  subordinate  to  the  royal  school-board  of 
the  province  of  Brandenburgh  at  Berlin,  and  to  the  minister  of 
public  instruction. 

The  last-named  authority  lays  down  the  principles  to  be 
followed  in  this  school,  as  in  all  other  public  schools  ;  exacts 
an  account  of  all  important  matters,  such  as  the  nomination 
of  the  masters,  and  any  change  in  the  fundamental  plan  of  the 
studies;  and  receives  every  year,  through  the  medium  of  the 
royal  school-board,  a  detailed  report,  prepared  by  the  director 
of  the  school. 

The  school-board  is  charged  with  the  special  inspection  of 
the  normal  school :  it  must  watch  its  progress,  and  from  time 
to  time  send  commissioners  to  make  inquiries  on  the  spot.  It 
examines  also  and  improves  the  plan  of  studies. 


38  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

2.  Building. 

m  • 

The  normal  school,  situated  near  the  canal  £thd  the  Berlin 
gate,  is  a  large  edifice  two  stories  high  with  a  frontage  of  127 
feet,  and  considerable  back-buildings,  which,  joined  to  the 
main  building,  form  a  square  within  which  is  a  tolerably  spa- 
cious court     The  whole  comprehends : 

"  1.  A  family  residence  for  the  director  or  principal,  and 
another  for  a  master  ; 

"  2.  Three  apartments  for  three  unmarried  masters ; 

"  3.  An  apartment  for  the  steward  and  his  servants,  and  suf- 
ficient convenience  for  household  business  and  stowage ; 

"  4.  A  dining-room  for  the  pupils,  which  serves  also  for  the 
writing  and  drawing  class  ; 

"  5.  An  organ-room,  in  which  the  music-lessons  are  given, 
the  examinations  take  place,  and  the  morning  and  evening 
prayers  are  said ; 

"  6.  Two  rooms  for  the  scientific  instruction  of  the  pupils  ; 

"  7.  Four  rooms  for  the  classes  of  the  annexed  school ; 

"  8.  Five  rooms  of  different  sizes,  and  two  dormitories  for 
the  pupils ; 

"  9.  Two  infirmaries ; 

"  10.  A  wash-house; 

"11.  Two  cabinets  of  natural  history  ; 

"  12.  Granaries,  cellars,  wood-houses,  &c. 

3.  Revenues. 

Are  afforded  by  state  funds,  by  fees  from  pupils,  and  from 
children  at  the  primary  school — which  serve  to  pay — 

"  1.  The  salaries  of  the  masters  ; 

"  2.  The  household  expenses ; 

"  3.  The  materials  for  instruction  for  the  normal  school  and 
the  school  annex^ad  ; 

"  4.  The  garden-ground  ; 

"  5.  The  heating  and  lighting  ; 

"  6.  The  repairs  of  the  building,  furniture  and  utensils,  the 
insurance,  taxes,  and  expenses  of  the  house,  &c. ; 


IN  PRUSSIA.  39 

"  7.  The  maintenance  of  the  pupils ; 
"  8.  The  physician  and  surgeon. 

4.  Inventory. 

"  The  establishment  contains  the  following  articles ; 

"  1.  Things  required  in  the  economy  of  the  house,  kitchen- 
utensils,  tables,  forms,  &c. ; 

"  2.  Sufficient  and  suitable  furniture,  consisting  of  chests  of 
drawers,  tables,  forms,  chairs  and  boxes,  for  the  class  of  the 
normal  school  and  the  school  for  practice,  and  for  the  masters' 
rooms,  &c.  There  is  also,  for  the  poor  pupils,  a  certain  num- 
ber of  bedsteads  with  bedding  ; 

"  3.  A  considerable  library  for  the  masters  and  pupils,  as 
well  as  a  good  collection  of  maps  and  globes  for  the  teaching 
of  geography ; 

"  4.  A  tolerably  complete  collection  of  philosophical  instru- 
ments ; 

"  5.  A  collection  of  minerals  ; 

"  6.  A  collection  of  stuffed  birds,  and  other  objects  in  natu- 
ral history ; 

"  7.  The  instruments  most  required  in  mathematical  in- 
struction ; 

"  8.  Complete  drawing  apparatus  ; 

"  9.  A  very  considerable  collection  of  music ; 

"  10.  A  very  good  organ,  and  a  piano-forte,  seven  harpsi- 
chords, and  many  wind  and  string  instruments. 

5.  Domestic  Economy  and  Maintenance  of  the  Pupils. 

".To  support  about  eighty  pupils,  and  to  preserve  cleanliness 
in  the  house,  a  steward  has  been  appointed,  whose  duties  are 
specified  in  a  contract  renewable  every  year. 

"  The  food  of  the  pupils  is  good  and  wholesome,  which  is 
proved  by  the  state  of  their  health.  Some  parents  think  it  need- 
ful to  send  thei»  children  eatables,  or  money  to  purchase  them. 
They  are  wrong,  for  the  children  have  no  such  want;  on  the 
contrary,  so  far  from  being  advantageous,  these  presents  only 


40  PUBLIC  IRSTRtJCTIOH 

serve  to  take  away  their  appetite  at  meals,  and  to  make  them 
dainty  and  gluttonous.  The  orphans  and  those  whose  parents 
are  too  poor  to  send  them  any  thing,  are  exactly  those  who 
are  the  strongest  and  healthiest. 

"  The  director  is  almost  always  present  at  meals,  to  be  sure 
of  the  goodness  of  tlie  food,  and  to  prevent  any  irregularity  in 
the  serving  up. 

"  Sick  pupils  are  sent  to  the  infirmary,  and  are  attended  by 
the  physician  or  surgeon  of  the  establishment. 

6.  Masters. 

"  All  the  masters  belong  exclusively  to  the  establishment,  in 
which  also  they  live.  Each  of  them  with  the  exception  of  the 
principal,  (whose  number  varies  from  twelve  to  sixteen,)  gives 
from  twenty-four  to  twenty-seven  lessons  a  week. 

"  The  number  of  lessons  being  so  great,  one  of  the  cleverest 
pupils  trained  in  the  house  is  employed  as  assistant  master,  so 
that  the  number  of  masters  in  fact  amounts  to  six. 

7.    JVumber  of  Pupils. 

"  The  number  of  the  pupils  is  fixed  by  the  regulation  at  from 
75  to  80,  and  is  now  78,*  of  whom  72  live  in  the  establishment ; 
the  other  six  have  obtained  a  Hcense  to  remain  with  their  pa- 
rents in  order  to  lessen  the  expense  of  their  maintenance. 

This  number  is  determined  not  only  by  the  building,  but  also 
by  the  wants  of  the  province.  The  number  of  pupils  to  be 
admitted  is  very  easily  determined.  It  depends  on  the  average 
number  of  new  masters  requii'ed  in  a  year  by  the  department- 
This  principle  is  fundamental.  It  is  absurd  to  gather  together 
at  random  a  crowd  of  students  who  have  no  security  for  ob- 
taining employment. 

8.   What  is  required  of  Applicants  for  Admission. 

m 
"  Once  a  year,  26  pupils  are  admitted.     Of  these  are  re- 
quired— 

'  1831. 


m  PRUSSIA*  41 

"  1.  Good  health  and  freedom  from  all  bodily  infirmity. 
(Obstacles  to  admission  would  be,  exceeding  smallness  of  sta- 
ture, short-sightedness,  or  a  delicate  chest ;) 

"2.  The  age  of  17  complete; 

"  3.  The  evangelical  religion  ; 

"4.  A  moral  and  religious  spirit,  and  a  conduct  hitherto 
blameless ; 

"  5.  A  good  disposition  and  talents,  amongst  which  are  a  good 
voice  and  musical  ear ; 

"  To  be  prepared  for  the  studies  of  the  normal  school  by  the 
culture  of  .the  heart  and  mind  :  to  have  received  a  good  reli- 
gious education  (which  shall  include  a  knowledge  of  the  Bible 
and  biblical  history ;)  to  be  able  to  read ;  to  know  the  gram- 
mar of  the  German  language,  of  composition,  arithmetic,  the 
principles  of  music. 

"  A  written  request  for  admission  must  be  sent  to  the  direc- 
tor, by  June  at  the  latest,  accompanied  with — 

"  1.  A  certificate  of  birth  and  baptism; 

"  The  director  enters  the  petitioners  on  a  list,  and  in  the 
month  of  June  or  July  invites  them,  by  letter  to  present  them- 
selves at  the  examination  which  takes  place  in  July  or 
August. 

"  The  examination  is  conducted  partly  in  writing,  and  partly 
viva  voce. 

"  As  a  means  of  ascertaining  the  acquirements  of  the  can- 
didates, and  of  judging  of  their  memory,  their  style,  and  their 
moral  dispositions,  an  anecdote  or  parable  is  related  in  a  clear 
and  detailed  manner,  summing  up  and  repeating  the  principal 
points,  after  which  they  produce  it  in  writing,  with  observa- 
tions and  reflections. 

The  oral  examination  usually  includes  only  religion,  read- 
ing, grammar,  logical  exercises,  and  arithmetic. 

They  are  also  examined  in  music. 

"  After  the  examination,  the  talents  and  merits  of  the  re- 
spective candidates  are  conscientiously  weighed  and  compared, 
in  a  conference  of  the  masters.  The  choice  being  made,  it  is 
submitted  to  the  sanction  of  the  royal  school-board  with  a  de- 
tailed report  of  the  result  of  the  examination. 

G 


42  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

At  the  end  of  some  weeks  the  candidates  are  infornmed  of 
the  decision ;  their  admission  is  announced,  or  the  reason  which 
prevented  it  stated ;  with  either  advice  to  give  up  their  project 
entirely,  or  suggestions  relative  to  their  further  preparation. 

"  The  admitted  candidate  is  bound  to  bring,  besides  his 
clothes  and  books,  amongst  which  must  be  the  Bible  and  the 
prayer-book  used  in  the  establishment,  half-a-dozen  shirts,  six 
pairs  of  stockings,  a  knife  and  fork,  and  generally,  a  bedstead 
with  all  requisite  bedding. 

"  He  is  also  bound  to  sign,  on  his  entrance,  an  engagement 
to  the  director,  with  the  consent  of  his  father  or  guardian,  to 
observe  the  rules  of  the  institution,  to  hold  his  future  services 
at  the  disposal  of  government,  or  to  refund  all  expenses  in- 
curred on  his  account. 

"  The  normal  school  is  by  no  means  designed  for  those  who 
are  unfit  for  any  business,  and  think  if  they  can  read  and 
write,  they  are  capable  of  becoming  schoolmasters.  This  no- 
tion is  so  deeply  rooted,  that  you  hear  fathers  declare  with  all 
the  simplicity  in  the  world — 'My  son  is  too  delicate  to  learn  a 
business,'  or  'I  don't  know  what  to  make  of  my  son,  but  I 
think  of  getting  him  into  the  normal  school.'  We  reply  to 
such,  that  the  pupils  of  the  normal  school  must,  on  the  con- 
trary, be  sound  both  in  body  and  mind,  and  able  to  brave  the 
toils  and  troubles  of  a  career  as  laborious  as  it  is  honourable. 

"  Much  neglect  unfortunately  still  exists  on  a  subject  which 
is  of  the  highest  unportance — the  methodical  preparation  of 
these  young  men  for  the  calling  which  it  is  desired  they  should 
embrace. 

"  A  false  direction  is  often  given  to  their  preliminary  studies. 
A  young  man  is  believed  to  be  well  prepared  for  the  normal 
school,  if  he  have  passed  the  limits  of  elementary  instruction; 
and  if  he  have  acquired  a  greater  mass  of  knowledge  than 
other  pupils.  It  frequently  happens,  however,  that  candidates 
who  come  strongly  recommended  from  school,  pass  the  exami- 
nation without  credit,  or  are  even  rejected. 

"  The  most  immediate  and  the  most  important  aim  of  all 
instruction,  is  to  train  up  and  complete  the  Man;  to  ennoble 
his  heart  and  character;  to  awaken  the  energies  of  his  soul, 


m  PRUSSIA.  43 

and  to  render  him  not  only  disposed,  but  able,  fo  fulfil  his  du- 
ties. In  this  view  alone  can  knowledge  and  talent  profit  a 
man;  otherwise,  instruction,  working  upon  sterile  memory  and 
talents  purely  mechanical,  can  be  of  no  high  utility.  In  order 
that  the  teacher,  and  particularly  the  master  of  the  primary 
school,  may  make  his  pupils  virtuous  and  enlightened  men,  it  is 
necessary  he  should  be  so  himself.  Thus,  that  the  education 
of  a  normal  school,  essentially  practical,  may  completely  suc- 
ceed, the  young  candidate  must  possess  nobleness  and  purity 
of  character  in  the  highest  possible  degree,  the  love  of  the 
True  and  Beautiful,  an  active  and  penetrating  mind,  the  utmost 
precision  and  clearness  in  narration  and  style. 

"  Such  above  all  things  are  the  qualities  we  require  of  young 
men.  If  they  have  reached  this  state  of  moral  and  intellect- 
ual advancement  by  the  study  of  history,  geography,  mathe- 
matics, &c.,  and  if  they  have  acquired  additional  knowledge 
on  these  various  branches,  we  cannot  but  give  them  applause; 
but,  we  frankly  repeat,  we  dispense  with  all  these  acquire- 
ments, provided  they  possess  that  formal  instruction  of  which 
we  have  just  spoken,  since  it  is  very  easy  for  them  to  obtain 
in  the  normal  school  that  material  instruction  in  which  they 
are  deficient.  • 

"  It  is  nevertheless  necessary  to  have  some  preliminary  no- 
tions, seeing  that  the  courses  at  the  normal  school  are  often 
a  continuation  of  foregone  studies,  and  that  certain  branches 
could  not  be  there  treated  in  their  whole  extent,  if  they  were 
wholly  unknown  to  the  young  men  when  they  entered.  We 
have  already  mentioned  the  branches  they  should  be  most  par- 
ticularly prepared  in ;  but  this  subject  being  of  the  greatest 
interest,  we  shall  conclude  this  chapter  with  some  suggestions 
on  the  plan  to  be  followed. 

"  1.  Religion.  To  awaken  and  fortify  the  religious  spirit 
and  the  moral  sentiments.  For  this  purpose  the  histories  and 
parables  of  the  Bible  are  very  useful.  Frequent  reading  and 
accurate  explanation  of  the  Bible  are  necessary. 

*'  As  to  general  history,  there  is  no  need  of  its  being  circum- 
stantially or  profoundly  known,  but  the  young  men  should  be 
able  to  refer  with  exactness  to  those  historical  facts  which 


44  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

may  be  profitably  used  to  form  the  heart,  to  exercise  and 
rectify  the  judgment,  to  infuse  a  taste  for  all  that  is  grand  and 
noble,  true  and  beautiful." 

It  appears  here,  that  mere  chronological  tables  and  books 
or  abstracts  do  not  satisfy  the  German  notion  of  learning  his- 
tory. The  philosophy  of  history,  its  moral  spirit,  is  communi- 
cated in  the  very  first  lessons  to  the  humblest  minds.  A  brief 
list  of  some  of  their  elementary  works  follows  : 

"  1.  Examples  of  Virtue,  a  collection  of  noble  deeds  and 
characteristic  traits  from  universal  history,  &lc,.,  3  vols. 

"  2.  School  of  Wisdom  and  Virtue. 

"  3.  Logical  Exercises.  These  ought  to  tend  to  produce  in 
young  minds  clearness  and  accuracy  of  ideas,  justness  of  judg- 
ment, and,  by  consequence,  precision  and  facility  in  oral  and 
written  explanations. 

"  4.  Exercises  for  lea-ming  to  think  in  a  methodical,  and  natu- 
ral manner." 

These  are  a  few  of  the  books  used  in  the  normal  schools. 
Their  very  titles  express  that  they  aim  by  direct  means  to  sow 
the  good  seed  of  moral  truth  in  the  juvenile  mind.  It  is  in- 
tended to  furnish  in  another  place,  as  has  already  been  stated, 
some  further  notice  of  books  pf  a  similar  character  to  those 
used  in  the  Prussian  schools,  and  which  are  adapted  to  the 
wants  of  our  own  School  System. 

"  5.  Reading.  When  once  the  pupil  can  read  fluently,  he 
must  be  taught  to  give  emphasis  to  his  reading,  and  to  feel 
what  he  reads.  He  should  be  habituated  to  recite,  and  even 
gradually  to  analyse  the  phrases  and  periods  he  has  just  read, 
to  change  the  order,  and  express  the  same  idea  in  different 
words — to  put,  for  example,  poetry  into  prose,  &c.  Thus 
these  exercises  serve  at  the  same  time  to  teach  him  to  think, 
and  to  speak.  We  advise  also  that  he  be  made  to  declaim 
pieces  he  has  learned  by  heart. 

"  0.  Arithmetic.  This  does  not  include  either  methods  of 
abstruse  calculation  or  practical  arithmetic.  Nothing  more  is 
required  of  the  pupil  than  to  use  figures  without  difficulty,  and 
to  calculate  in  his  head. 

"  All  the  pupils  are  bound  to  pursue  the  course  of  the  normal 


IN  PRUSSIA.  46 

school  for  three  years ;    their  acquirements  and  instruction 
would  be  incomplete  if  they  did  not  conform  to  this  regulation. 

9.  Education  of  the  Pupils  by  means  of  Discipline  and  of  In- 
struction. 

"  This  important  subject  is  of  far  too  great  extent  for  us  to 
attempt  to  exhaust  it  here.  We  shall  take  a  future  opportunity 
of  entering  upon  it,  and  show  how  all  the  branches  of  instruc- 
tion are  treated  in  the  normal  school,*  At  present  we  shall 
content  ourselves  with  the  mention  of  the  principles  which  re- 
gulate the  instruction  and  general  discipline. 

"  In  the  education  of  masters  of  primary  schools  the  wants 
of  the  people  must  be  consulted. 

"  We  have  abundant  proof  that  the- Veil-being  of  an  indi- 
vidual, hke  that  of  a  people,  is  no  wise  secured  by  extraordi- 
nary intellectual  powers  or  very  refined  civilisation.  The 
true  happiness  of  an  individual,  as  of  a  people,  is  founded  on 
strict  morality,  self-government,  humility,  and  moderation ; 
on  the  willing  performance  of  all  duties  to  God,  and  his  neigh- 
bours. 

"  A  religious  and  moral  education  is  consequently  the  first 
want  of  a  people.  Without  this,  every  other  education  is  not 
only  without  real  utility,  but  in  some  respects  dangerous.  If, 
on  the  contrary,  religious  education  has  taken  firm  root,  intel- 
lectual education  will  have  complete  success,  and  ought  on  no 
account  to  be  withheld  from  the  people,  since  God  has  en- 
dowed them  with  all  the  faculties  for  acquiring  it,  and  since 
the  cultivation  of  all  the  powers  of  man  secures  to  him  the 
means  of  reaching  perfection,  and,  through  that,  supreme  hap- 
piness. 

"  Religious  and  moral  instruction,  far  from  leading  to  pre- 
sumption and  a  disputatious  spirit,  on  the  contrary,  produces 
in  man  a  consciousness  of  his  own  weakness,  and,  as  a  con- 
sequence, humility.  The  object  then  should  be,  to  give  the 
people  solid  and  practical  knowledge,  suited  to  their  wants, 

*  Page  4a 


46  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

which  will  naturally  refine  and  soften  their  habits  and  man- 
ners. 

"  If  such  be  the  instruction  the  people  ought  to  receive,  that 
of  the  masters  of  the  primary  schools  is  at  once  determined, 
and  the  principles  to  be  followed  in  the  instruction  of  our 
pupils  are  equally  clear. 

"  A  more  definite  direction  is  given  to  religious  and  moral 
instruction  by  belief  in  the  revealed  word  of  God  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  But  this  belief  must  not  be  simply  historical,  as 
amongst  the  learned.  It  ought  rather  so  to  penetrate  the 
heart  of  man  as  to  produce  a  constant  endeavour  to  have  his 
thoughts,  sentiments,  and  actions,  in  strictest  harmony  with 
the  word  of  God.  It  is,  then,  on  the  living  conviction  of  the 
truths  and  doctrines  of  Christianity,  that  we  base  the  religious 
and  moral  character  oT-  our  pupils.  Enemies  to  all  needless 
constraint,  we  allow  the  young  men  all  the  liberty  compatible 
with  our  responsibility,  with  our  duty  of  guarding  them  from 
every  seduction,  and  with  the  internal  order  of  the  establish- 
ment. We  are  indulgent  to  faults  which  arise  not  from  bad 
disposition,  but  we  punish  unldndness  and  rudeness  even  in 
look  and  gesture. 

"  Our  principal  aim,  in  each  kind  of  instruction,  is  to  induce 
the  young  men  to  think  and  judge  for  themselves.  We  are 
opposed  to  all  mechanical  study  and  servile  transcripts.  The 
masters  of  our  primary  schools  must  possess  intelligence  them- 
selves, in  order  to  be  able  to  awaken  it  in  their  pupils  ;  other- 
wise, the  state  would  doubtless  prefer  the  less  expensive  schools 
of  Bell  and  Lancaster. 

"  We  always  begin  with  the  elements,  because  we  are  com- 
pelled to  admit  pupils  whose  studies  have  been  neglected ;  and 
because  we  wish  to  organise  the  instruction  in  every  branch, 
so  as  to  afford  the  pupils  a  model  and  guide  in  the  lessons 
which  they  will  one  day  be  called  upon  to  give. 

"  With  respect  to  material  instruction,  we  regard  much 
more  the  solidity,  than  the  extent,  of  the  acquirements.  This 
not  only  accords  with  the  intentions  of  the  higher  authorities, 
but  reason  itself  declares  that  solidity  of  knowledge  alone  can 


IN  PRUSSIA.  47 

enable  a  master  to  teach  with  efficacy,  and  carry  forward  his 
own  studies  with  success. 

"  Practical  instruction  we  consider  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance. 

**  All  the  studies  and  all  the  knowledge  of  our  pupils  would 
be  fruitless,  and  the  normal  school  would  not  fulfil  the  design 
of  its  institution,  if  the  young  teachers  were  to  quit  the  esta- 
blishment without  having  already  methodically  appHed  what 
they  had  learned,  and  without  knowing  by  experience  what 
they  have  to  do,  and  how  to  set  about  it. 

"  To  obtain  this  result,  it  is  not  sufficient  that  the  young  men 
should  see  the  course  gone  through  under  skilful  masters,  or 
that  they  should  themselves  occasionally  give  lessons  to  their 
school-fellows  ;  they  must  have  taught  the  children  in  the  an- 
nexed school  for  a  long  time,  under  the  direction  of  the  mas- 
ters of  the  normal  school.  It  is  only  by  the  familiarising  them- 
selves with  the  plan  of  instruction  for  each  particular  branch, 
and  by  teaching  each  for  a  certain  time  themselves,  that  they 
can  acquire  the  habit  of  treating  it  with  method." 

Annexed  School. 

"  The  annexed  school  was  founded  in  1825,  and  receives 
gratuitously  from  160  to  170  boys.  The  higher  authorities,  in 
granting  considerable  funds  for  the  establishment  of  this 
school,  have  been  especially  impelled  by  the  benevolent  desire 
of  securing  to  the  great  mass  of  the  poor  children  in  this  town* 
the  means  of  instruction,  and  of  relieving  the  town  from  the 
charge  of  their  education. 

"  The  town-authorities  agreed  on  their  part,  to  pay  one  tha- 
ler and  five  silber-groshen  (3s.  Qd.)  a  year  for  each  child.  On 
this  condition  we  supply  the  children  gratuitously  with  the 
books,  slates,  &c.,  which  they  want. 

"  The  annexed  school  is  a  primary  school,  which  is  divided 
into  classes,  but  reckons  only  three  degrees :  the  second  and 
third  classes  are  separated  from  each  other  only  for  the  good 

•  Potsdam. 


48 


PUBLIC  INSTRUCTIONT 


of  the  pupils,  and  for  the  purpose  of  affording  more  practice  to 
the  young  masters. 

"  The  first  class  with  the  two  above  it,  forms  a  good  and 
complete  elementary  school ;  while  the  highest  presents  a  class 
of  a  burgher  school,  where  the  most  advanced  pupils  of  the 
normal  schools,  who  will  probably  be  one  day  employed  in  the 
town  schools,  give  instruction  to  the  cleverest  boys  of  the  an- 
nexed school. 

"  Here  is  a  table  of  what  is  taught  in  this  school. 


The  two 

SUBJECTS  TAUGHT. 

Lowest 
class. 

middle 
classes. 

Highest 
class. 

Lessons. 

Lessons. 

Lessons. 

1.  Religion             .         .         . 

4 

4 

3 

2.  Reading        ... 

6 

6 

2 

3.  The  German  language 

4.  Arithmetic    -         -         - 

6 
3 

4 
4 

4 
4 

5.  Geometry  and  drawing 

6.  Writing 

2 
3 

2 
3 

2 
4 

7.  Singing     -         -         -         . 

8.  Mathematics  ■ 

2 

3 

3 
2 

9.  Geography        .         -         . 
10.  Natural  History     - 

— 

— 

2 

2 

11.  History    -         -         -         . 
No.  of  lessons  in  the  week     - 

— 

— 

2 

26 

26 

30 

"  We  shall  add  a  few  remarks  on  this  plan. 

"1.  In  the  two  middle  classes,  the  most  common  sorts  of 
knowledge  are  taught,  together  with  reading. 

"  2.  The  lessons  in  language  consist,  in  the  lower  class,  of 
logical  exercises  and  anecdotes ;  and,  in  the  middle  classes,  of 
exercises  in  language  and  grammar. 

"  The  master  of  the  normal  school,  who  has  prepared  the 
young  masters  beforehand  is  present  during  the  lesson  given 
by  them  in  the  school  of  experiment  He  hstens,  observes,  and 
guides  them  during  the  lessons,  and  afterwards  communicates 


IN  PRUSSIA.  49 

his  observations  and  his  opinion  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
lesson  was  given. 

"  It  is  requisite  that  every  pupil  of  the  normal  school  should 
teach  all  the  branches  in  the  lowest  class  in  succession;  for  the 
master  of  a  primary  school,  however  learned  he  may  be,  is 
ignorant  of  the  most  indispensable  part  of  his  calling,  if  he 
cannot  teach  the  elements. 

10.  Departure  from  the  Normal  School;  Examinations;   Cer- 
tificates and  Appointments. 

"  The  pupils  quit  the  normal  school  after  having  pursued  the 
course  for  three  years ;  for  the  lengthening  of  their  stay  would 
be  an  obstacle  to  the  reception  of  new  pupils. 

"But  they  must  first  go  through  an  examination  in  writing 
and  viva  voce,  of  which  we  give  an  abstract. 

"  1.  All  the  pupils  of  the  primary  normal  schools  shall  go 
through  an  examination  on  leaving. 

"2.  The  examination  shall  be  conducted  by  all  the  masters 
of  the  normal  school,  on  all  the  subjects  taught  in  the  house, 
in  the  presence  and  under  the  direction  of  One  or  more  com- 
missioners. 

"3.  Every  pupil,  before  leaving,  shall  give  a  probationary 
lesson,  to  show  to  what  degree  he  possesses  the  art  of  teaching. 

"  4.  After  the  examination  is  over,  and  exact  accounts  of 
the  pupils  leaving  are  given  by  the  director  and  all  the  mas- 
ters, a  certificate  shall  be  delivered  to  each  pupil,  signed  by 
the  director,  the  masters  and  the  commissioners. 

"  5.  This  certificate  shall  specify  the  knowledge  and  talents 
of  the  pupil;  it  shall  state  whether  he  possesses  the  art  of 
teaching,  and  whether  his  moral  character  renders  him  fit  for 
the  ofiice  of  primary  schoolmaster.  It  shall  include,  besides, 
a  general  opinion  of  his  character  and  attainments,  expressed 
by  one  of  the  terms,  '  excellent,'  '  good,'  *  passable,'  and  an- 
swering to  the  numbers  1,2,  3. 

"  6.  This  certificate  only  gives  the  pupil  a  provisional  power 
of  receiving  an  appointment  for  three  years.  After  that  time 
he  must   undergo  a  new  exainination  at  the  normal  school, 

7 


50  PUBLIC  IHrSTRUCTION 

But  any  pupil  who,  on  leaving  the  establishment,  obtained 
number  1,  and  has,  in  the  course  of  the  three  first  years,  been 
teacher  in  a  public  school,  shall  not  have  to  pass  another  ex- 
amination. No  other  can  take  a  situation,  except  provi- 
sionally. 

"  7.  These  new  examinations  shall  not  take  place  at  the 
same  time  as  those  of  the  pupils  who  are  leaving;  but,  like 
those,  always  in  the  presence  and  under  the  direction  of  the 
commissioners  of  the  school-board. 

"  8.  In  the  first  examination  the  principal  object  is,  to  ascer- 
tain if  the  pupils  have  well  understood  the  lessons  of  the  nor- 
mal school,  and  learned  to  apply  them  ;  in  the  last,  the  only 
object  of  inquiry  is  the  practical  skill  of  the  candidate. 

"  9.  The  result  of  this  new  examination  shall  Ukewise  be 
expressed  in  a  certificate,  appended  to  the  first,  and  care  shall 
be  taken  to  specify  therein  the  fitness  of  the  candidate  for  the 
profession  of  schoolmaster." 

"  For  which  reason  the  pupils  on  their  departure  receive  a 
certificate,  the  first  page  of  which  describes  their  talents,  cha- 
racter, and  morality,  and  the  two  following  contain  an  exact 
account  of  the  result  of  the  examination  on  all  branches  of 
study. 

"  Those  who  have  not  obtained  appointments  in  the  interval 
between  the  two  examinations,  shall  present  this  certificate  to 
the  superintendents  and  school-inspectors  of  the  places  where 
they  live,  and,  on  leaving  that  place,  shall  demand  a  certificate 
of  conduct,  which  they  shall  produce  at  the  time  of  the  se- 
cond examination.  Those  who  have  been  in  situations  during 
the  three  first  years,  shall  produce  certificates  from  their  im- 
mediate superiors. 

"  All  the  pupils  cannot  be  appointed  immediately  on  their 
leaving  the  school :  but  a  great  number  of  them  are  proposed 
by  the  director  for  vacant  places,  and  are  sought  after  by  the 
royal  government,  by  superintendents,  magistrates,  6tc. ;  so 
that  at  the  end  of  a  year  we  may  calculate  that  they  are  all 
established. 

"  I*  can  answer  for  the  perfect  fidelity  of  this  description 

•  Cousin. 


I  IT  PRUSSIA.  51 

of  the  normal  school  of  Potsdam ;  and  in  the  long  visit  and 
minute  investigation  of  this  great  establishment  which  I  made 
in  person,  I  came  to  the  conviction  that  the  representation  I 
have  now  just  completed  and  which  was  drawn  up  in  1826, 
was,  in  1831,  below  the  reality. 

"  The  primary  normal  school  of  Potsdam  now  contains 
eighty  students :  they  all  board  in  the  house.  The  charge  is 
48  thaler  a  year  (7/.  4s.)  Half  the  students  pay  this  entire 
sum ;  others  have  purses  (exhibitions)  or  half  purses.  The 
director  and  the  masters,  to  the  number  of  five,  are  all  lodged  in 
the  house.  The  director's  salary  is  1060  thaler  a  year,  (159/. ;) 
the  five  masters  have  530,  480, 400,  220,  and  200  thaler,  not  in- 
cluding an  allowance  for  wood.  180  thaler  a  year  are  devoted 
to  the  maintenance  of  a  garden,  and  of  a  gardener,  who  gives  in- 
struction in  his  art.  120  thaler  a  year  are  spent  in  books ; 
the  library  already  contains  more  than  a  thousand  volumes. 
There"  is  a  little  cabinet  of  mineralogy  and  natural  history,  a 
collection  of  seeds,  a  tellurium  for  the  illustration  of  geogra- 
phical and  astronomical  lessons ;  there  is  also  a  fine  organ,  for 
every  one  of  the  pupils  is  expected  to  be  able  to  act  as  organist. 
Each  study  has  its  piano-forte,  each,  pupil  his  vioHn,  and  a 
small  collection  of  books.  I  have  said  that  there  are  eighty 
students  :  at  least  a  hundred  applicants  for  admission  present 
themselves  yearly,  out  of  whom  twenty-six  or  twenty-seven 
are  chosen — about  the  same  number  as  quit  the  school.  No 
one  can  be  admitted  before  the  age  of  seventeen  or  eighteen, 
but  they  may  enter  considerably  later ;  and  I  have  seen  stu- 
dents as  old  as  four-and-twenty.  At  the  end  of  three  years 
there  is  a  parting  examination ;  those  who  go  through  it  with 
credit  are  entered  as  candidates  for  the  mastership  of  an  ele- 
mentary or  burgher  school. 

"  The  course  of  instruction  is  very  thorough,  and  at  the 
same  time  very  extensive. 

'*  I  saw  this  scheme  in  action.  The  spirit  which  dictated 
the  arrangement  and  distribution  of  the  tuition  is  excellent,  and 
equally  pervades  all  the  details.  The  normal  course,  which 
occupies  three  years,  is  composed,  for  the  first  year,  of  studies 
calculated  to  open  the  mind,  and  to  inculcate  on  the  pupils 
good  methods  in  every  branch,  and  the  feeling  of  what  is  the 


52  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

true  vocati9n  of  a  primary  teacher.  This  is  \\\in\  is  called 
the  formal  instruction,  in  opposition  to  the  materiat  or  more 
positive  instruction  of  the  second  year,  in  which  pupils  go 
through  special  studies  of  a  very  solid  kind,  and  learn  con- 
siderably more  than  they  will  generally  be  called  upon  to 
teach.  The  third  year,  is  entirely  practical,  and  is  devoted  to 
learning  the  art  of  teaching. 

"  As  appears  from  the  prospectus,  the  musical  instruction  is 
carried  to  a  very  high  point.  There  are  few  students  who 
have  not  a  Adolin,  and  many  of  them  leave  the  school  very 
good  organists  and  piano-forte  players.  Singing  is  particu- 
larly cultivated.  The  course  of  instruction  embraces  not  only 
a  little  botany,  mineralogy,  physical  science,  natural  history, 
and  zoology,  but  exercises  in  psychology  and  logic,  which 
tend  to  give  the  young  men  the  philosophy  of  that  portion  of 
popular  education  intrusted  to  their  care.  I  was  present  at 
several  lessons  ;  among  others,  one  on  history  and  chronology, 
in  which,  out  of  courtesy  to  me,  the  pupils  were  interrogated 
on  the  history  of  France,  particularly  during  the  reigns  of 
Charles  IX. ;  Henry  III.,  and  Henry  IV., — a  period  of  which 
protestantism  is  so  important  a  feature.  The  young  men  an- 
swered extremely  well,  and  seemed  perfectly  familiar  with  the 
dates  and  leading  facts.  I  say  noting  of  the  gymnastic 
courses,  as  Prussia  is  the  classic  land  of  those  exercises. 

"  What  struck  mo  the  most  was  the  courses,  called  in  Ger- 
many courses  of  Melhodik  and  Didaktik,  as  also  those  designated 
by  the  name  of  P'ddagogik :  the  two  former  intended  to  teach 
the  art  of  tuition,  the  latter  the  more  difficult  art  of  moral  edu- 
cation. These  courses  are  almost  always  given  by  the  di- 
rector, who  also  generally  gives  the  religious  instruction, 
which  here  comes  in  its  propes  place — that  is,  first.  There 
are  many  examples  in  Germany  of  laymen  who  teach  religion. 
As  all  schoolmasters,  who  are  of  necessity  generally  laymen, 
are  bound  to  give  religious  and  moral  instruction  in  their 
several  schools,  it  follows  of  course  that  the  teaching  the  art 
of  giving  such  instruction  cannot  be  confined  to  ecclesiastics. 

"  I  ought  to  add  that  all  the  students  of  the  school  at  Pots- 
dam had  a  cheerful  happy  air,  and  that  their  manners  were 


IN  PRUSSIA.  53 

veiy  good.  If  they  brought  any  rusticity  to  the  school,  they 
had  entirely  lost  it.  I  quitted  the  establishment  highly  satisfied 
with  the  students,  full  of  esteem  for  the  director,  and  of  a  re- 
spect for  a  country  in  which  the  education  of  the  people  has 
reached  such  a  pitch  of  prosperity." 


SMALL  NORMAL  SCHOOLS. 

"  The  small  normal  schools  differ,  generally,  from  the  large, 
not  only  in  the  number  of  pupils,  which  is  much  smaller,  but 
above  all  as  being  nurseries  of  village  schoolmasters  for  the 
very  poorest  parishes.  The  great  schools  furnish  masters  for 
the  country  as  well  as  for  the  towns.  The  masters  from  the 
smaller  schools,  labour  for  these  poor  and  backward  villages. 
To  this  their  whole  organisation,  their  studies,  their  discipline, 
are  to  be  directed.  Unquestionably,  the  great  normal  schools 
of  Prussia  are  entitled  to  the  highest  respect ;  but  never  can 
there  be  veneration  enough  for  these  humble  labourers  in  the 
field  of  public  instruction,  who,  as  I  have  said,  seek  obscurity 
rather  than  fame ;  who  devote  themselves  to  the  service  of 
poverty  with  as  much  zeal  as  others  to  the  pursuit  of  riches, 
since  they  toil  for  the  poor  alone  ;  and  who  impose  restraints 
on  every  personal  desire  and  feeling,  while  others  are  excited 
by  all  the  stimulants  of  competition.  They  cost  scarcely  any 
thing,  and  they  do  infinite  good.  Nothing  is  easier  to  esta- 
blish— but  on  one  condition,  that  we  find  directors  and  pupils 
capable  of  the  most  disinterested,  and,  what  is  more,  the  most 
obscure,  devotion  to  the  cause.  Such  devotion,  however,  can 
be  inspired  and  kept  alive  by  religion  alone.  Those  who  can 
consent  to  live  for  the  service  of  men  who  neither  know  nor 
can  appreciate  them,  must  keep  their  eyes  steadfastly  fixed  on 
Heaven :  that  witness  is  necessary  to  those  who  have  no 
other.  And,  accordingly,  we  find  that  the  authors  and  direct- 
ors of  these  small  schools  are  almost  all  ministers  of  religion, 


54  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTrON 

inspired  by  the  spirit  of  Christian  love,  or  men  of  singular  vir- 
tue, fervent  in  the  cause  of  popular  education.  In  these  hum- 
ble institutions  every  thing  breathes  Christian  charity,  ardour 
for  the  good  of  the  people,  and  poverty.  I  shall  lay  before 
you  a  description  of  two ;— one  hidden  in  a  suburb  of  Stettin, 
and  the  other  in  the  village  of  Pyritz  in  Pomerania. 

"  Stettin  has  a  large  normal  school,  instituted  for  the  train- 
ing of  masters  for  the  burgher  schools.  An  excellent  man, 
Mr.  Bernhardt,  school-councillor  (Schulrath)  in  the  council  of 
the  department,  was  the  more  powerfully  struck  by  the  neces- 
sity of  providing  for  the  wants  of  the  country  schools.  He 
founded  a  small  normal  school  for  this  sole  purpose,  and  placed 
it  not  in  the  town,  but  in  a  suburb  called  Lastadie  ;  he  laid 
down  regulations  for  its  government,  which  I  annex  nearly 
entire." 

Small  Primary  Normal  School  of  Lastadie  near  Stettin. 

"  1.  This  school  is  specially  designed  for  poor  young  men 
who  intend  to  become  country  schoolmasters,  and  who  may, 
in  case  of  need,  gain  a  part  of  their  subsistence  by  the  labour 
of  their  hands. 

"  2.  Nothing  is  taught  here  but  those  things  necessary  for 
small  and  poor  country  parishes,  which  require  schoolmasters 
who  are  Christians  and  useful  men,  and  can  afford  them  but 
a  very  slender  recompense  for  their  toils. 

"  3.  This  school  is  intended  to  be  a  Christian  school,  founded 
in  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  It  aspires  only  to  resemble  a  vil- 
lage household  of  the  simplest  kind,  and  to  unite  all  its  mem- 
bers into  one  family.  To  this  end,  all  the  pupils  inhabit  the 
same  house,  and  eat  at  the  same  table  with  the  masters. 

"  4.  The  young  men  who  will  be  admitted  in  preference, 
are  such  as  are  born  and  bred  in  the  country ;  who  know  the 
elements  of  what  ought  to  be  taught  in  a  good  country  school ; 
who  have  a  sound  straight-forward  understanding,  and  a 
kindly  cheerful  temper.  If,  withal,  they  know  any  handicraft 
or  understand  gardening,  they  will  find  opportunities  for  prac- 
tice and  improvement  in  it  in  odd  hours. 


IN  PRUSSIA.  55 

"  5.  The  school  of  Lastadie  neither  can  nor  will  enter  into 
any  competition  with  the  great  normal  schools  completely  or- 
ganised ;  on  the  contrary,  it  will  strive  always  to  keep  itself 
within  the  narrow  limits  assigned  to  it. 

"6.  The  utmost  simplicity  ought  to  prevail  in  all  the  habits  of 
the  school,  and,  if  possible,  manual  labour  should  be  combined 
with  those  studies  which  are  the  main  object,  and  which  .ought 
to  occupy  the  greater  portion  of  the  time. 

"  7.  The  course  of  instruction  is  designed  to  teach  young 
people  to  reflect,  and  by  exercising  them  in  reading,  writing, 
arithmetic,  and  singing,  to  put  it  in  their  power  to  instruct  them- 
selves, and  to  form  their  own  minds.  For  the  humblest  person 
ought  to  be  taught  to  think;  but  to  enlighten  him,  to  make  him 
a  rational  and  intelligent  being,  does  not  mean  to  make  him 
highly  learned.  'God  willeth  that  all  men  be  enlightened,  and 
that  they  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.' 

"  8.  The  instruction  ought  to  have  a  direct  connexion  with 
the  vocation  of  the  students,  and  to  include  only  the  most  es- 
sential part  of  the  instruction  given  in  the  great  normal 
schools.  *■ 

"9.  The  objects  of  instruction  are,  religion,  the  German 
language,  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  and  singing.  To  these 
are  joined  the  first  elements  of  geometry,  easy  lessons  in  natural 
history,  narratives  drawn  from  the  national  history,  and  geo- 
graphical descriptions.  The  principal  object,  and  the  founda- 
tion of  all  education,  is  religion,  as  learned  from  history  and 
the  Bible.  The  school  of  Lastadie  will  also  strive  to  excite 
and  cherish  in  its  pupils  a  love  of  nature,  and  to  that  end  will 
cultivate  a  taste  for  gardening  and  planting. 

"  10.  In  treating  of  all  these  subjects,  the  pupils  must  be 
trained  to  speak  in  pure  and  accurate  language;  for  after  the 
knowledge  of  religion  and  of  nature,  there  is  nothing  of  which 
children  stand  more  in  need,  than  to  learn  to  express  what 
they  know  with  simplicity,  truth,  and  accuracy. 

"  11.  The  students  know  enough,  when  they  speak,  read,  and 
write  well;  when  they  can  produce  a  good  composition  in  the 
German  tongue;  when  they  can  calculate  with  facility  and  with 
reflection,  and  when  they  sing  well ;  they  know  enough,  when 


66  Public  instructiost  J 

they  are  thoroughly  versed  in  the  Bible,  when  they  p'^sses's  thS^,  '[ 
most  essential  notions  of  the  system  of  that  universe*  v*fhich   ""^ 
they  have  constantly  before  their  eyes,  of  that  nature,  in  the     ; 
midst  of  which  they  Uve :  they  have  attained  much,  when  they 
are  Christians,  rational,  and  virtuous  men. 

"  12.  The  period  of  study  is  fixed  at  two  years.     The  first 
j'ear  the  pupils  learn  what  they  are  hereafter  to  teach  to  others ; 
besides  which,  they  assist  at  the  lessons  the  masters  give  to  the 
children  of  the  school  annexed  to  this  small  normal  school.    In     ] 
the  second  year  the  future  teacher  appears  more  distinctly,     | 
and  from  that  time  every  thing  is  more  and  more  applied  to 
practice.     They  continue  the  whole  year  to  practise  teaching,    \ 
and  at  the  end  they  receive,  a  set  of  rules,  short  and  easy  to 
understand,  for  the  management  of  a  school  of  poor  country    j 
children.  j 

"  13.  To  the  school  of  Lastadie  is  joined  a  school  of  poor 
children,  in  which  the  young  men  have  an  opportunity  of  i 
going  over  what  they  have  learned,  by  teaching  it  to  others,  | 
and  of  exercising  themselves  in  tuition  according  to  a  fixed 
plan.  ^This  school  consists  of  a  single  class,  in  order  that  the  j 
students  may  see  how  a  good  school  for  poor  children  should  j 
be  composed  and  conducted,  and  how  all  the  children  may  be  ' 
kept  employed  at  once.  ; 

"  14.  The  number  of  pupils  is  fixed  at  twelve.     The  pecu-    ; 
niary  assistance  they  receive  will  depend  on  circumstances.    1 
The  instruction  is  gratuitous.      Six  pupils  inhabit  each  room.    ! 
The  master  lives  on  the  same  floor.     They  take  their  simple 
but  wholesome  meals  together.    Servants  are  not  wanted.    The 
pupils  do  the  work  of  the  house.  ' 

"  15.  The  daily  lessons  begin  and  end  with  prayers  and 
psalmody.     It  rests  with  the  master  to  fix  the  hours  of  devo- 
tion, (founded  chiefly  on  the  Bible  and  the  book  of  psalms,)  as 
well  as  their  number.     So  long  as  the  true  spirit  of  Christiani-    i 
ty — faith  quickened  by  charity — shall  pervade  the  establish-    ^ 
ment — ^and  fill  the  hearts  of  masters  and  of  pupils,  the  school     ; 
will  be  Christian,  and  will  form  Christian  teachers;  and  this    * 
spirit  of  faith  and  of  charity  will  be  productive  of  blessings  to    { 
the  poor  and  to  the  mass  of  the  nation.  ; 


IN  PRUSSIA.  St 

''16.  It  will  not,  therefore,  be  necessary  to  lay  down  minute 
regulations;  but  practical  moral  training  must  be  combined  as 
much  as  possible  with  instruction.  'The  letter  killeth,  the 
spirit  quickeneth.'  But  what  will  it  not  require  to  imbue  the 
whole  establishment  with  the  true  spirit  of  Christianity,  so  that 
masters  and  pupils  may  devote  themselves  with  their  whole 
hearts,  and  for  the  love  of  God,  to  the  children  of  the  poor  ? 

"  17.  Whoever  wishes  to  be  admitted  into  this  establishment, 
must  not  be  under  eighteen  nor  above  twenty  years  of  age. 
He  must  bring  the  certificates  of  his  pastor,  of  the  authorities 
of  his  parish,  and  of  the  physician  of  the  circle,  as  to  his  pre- 
vious conduct  and  the  state  of  his  health-  He  must,  moreover, 
have  such  preliminary  knowledge  as  is  to  be  acquired  in  a  well- 
conducted  country  school,  on  Biblical  history,  reading,  writing, 
arithmetic  and  singing.  Those  who  join  to  these  acquirements 
the  principles  of  piano-forte  or  violin  playing,  will  be  preferred. 
The  candidates  for  admission  give  notice  to  the  director,  and 
are  examined  by  the  members  of  the  departmental  authorities 
who  have  the  care  of  the  people's  schools. 

"  18.  There  is  no  public  examination.  The  examination  on 
quitting  is  likewise  conducted  by  the  school  councillors  of  the 
department,  and  the  certificates  of  capacity  are  founded  on  this 
examination,  according  to  the  gradations  1,  2,  3,  and  are  de- 
liv^ered  by  the  departmental  authorities. 

"  19.  As  to  the  placing  of  the  pupils,  it  is  desirable  that  they 
should  work  some  years  as  assistant-masters,  in  order  that  they 
may  gradually  acquire  the  necessary  experience  and  confi- 
dence, and  may  become  well  acquainted  with  children,  and 
with  the  inhabitants  of  villages.  Under  this  supposition,  the 
age  of  admTssion  might  be  conveniently  fixed  at  sixteen  ;  and 
this  arrangement  would  be  a  great  relief  to  aged  schoolmas- 
ters who  are  become  burthensome  to  themselves  and  to  their 
parishes. 

"  20.  Particular  attention  is  paid  to  singing  and  to  horticul- 
ture ;  as  means  of  ennobling  and  animating  the  public  worship 
of  God,  and  the  general  course  of  a  country  Ufe ;  of  providing 
the  pupils  with  an  agreeable  recreation,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
a  useful  occupation ;  and,  furtlier,  of  combating  the  grossness 

8 


68  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

of  mind  and  the  obstinate  prejudices  to  which  uncdilcated  hus- 
bandmen are  prone. 

"21.  All  the  students  attend  divine  service  in  the  church  of 
Lastadie  on  Sundays. 

"  22.  The  vacations  must  not  exceed  four  weeks  for  the  whole 
year :  they  are  at  Easter,  in  the  autumn,  and  at  Christmas. 

"  23.  The  establishment  has  no  other  revenues  than  what  it 
owes  to  the  bounty  of  the  state. 

"  May  this  establishment,  (concludes  Mr.  Bernhadt,)  which 
owes  its  existence  to  such  fervent  charity,  not  be  deprived  of 
that  blessing,  without  which  it  can  do  nothing  ! 

"  Assuredly  there  is  not  a  virtuous  heart  which  does  not 
unite  its  prayers  with  those  of  the  worthy  and  benevolent  coun- 
cillor. 

"The  second  small  normal  school  of  this  description  was 
founded  in  1824,  in  honour  of  Otto,  bishop  of  Bamberg,  who 
introduced  Christianity  into  Pomerania,  having  baptized  4000 
Pomeranians  in  1124,  near  the  fountain  of  Pyritz.  When  the 
minister  of  public  instruction  granted  the  hcense  for  its  esta- 
blishment, he  made  it  a  condition  that  the  students  should  be 
instructed  in  agriculture,  not  merely  as  a  recreation,  but  as  es- 
sential to  their  destination  ;  that  they  should  be  bound  to  study 
gardening,  the  cultivation  of  fruit-trees,  and  of  silk-worms. — 
The  special  superintendence  of  this  house  is  intrusted  to  the 
pastor  of  the  place.  The  regulations  are  as  follows : — they 
resemble  those  of  Lastadie  in  many  respects,  but  go  into  great 
detail,  and  are  perhaps  still  more  austere  as  to  discipline. 

Rules  of  the  small  Normal  School  of  Pyritz  in  Pomerania. 

"  1.  The  purpose  of  this  endowment  is  to  give  to  every  pupil 
the  training  and  instruction  suitable  for  a  good  and  useful 
country  schoolmaster :  this,  however,  can  only  be  done  by  the 
union  of  Christian  piety  with  a  fundamental  knowledge  of  his 
vocation,  and  with  good  conduct  in  the  household  and  in  the 
school. 

"  2.  Piety  is  known — 

**  By  purity  of  manners  ; 


IN  PRUSSIA.  59 

"  By  sincerity  in  word  and  deed ; 

**  By  love  of  God  and  of  his  word  ; 

"  By  love  of  our  neighbour  ; 

"  By  willing  obedience  to  superiors  and  masters  ; 

"  By  brotherly  harmony  among  the  pupils ; 

"  By  active  participation  in  the  pious  exercises  of  the  house, 
and  of  public  worship. 

"  By  respect  for  the  government  and  laws,  by  unshaken 
fidelity  to  our  couutry,  by  uprightness  of  heart  and  of  con- 
duct. 

'*  3.  A  thorough  knowledge  of  the  duties  of  a  teacher  are 
acquired — 

"  By  long  study  of  the  principles  and  elements  ; 

"  By  learning  what  is  necessary  and  really  useful  in  that  vo- 
cation ; 

"  By  habits  of  reflection  and  of  voluntary  labour ; 

"  By  constant  application  to  lessons  ; 

"  By  incessant  repetition  and  practice  ; 

"  By  regular  industry  and  well-ordered  activity  ;  according 
to  this  commandment,  '  Pray  and  work.' 

*'  4.  Good  conduct  in  the  house  and  the  school  requires — 

"  A  good  distribution  and  employment  of  time  ; 

"  Inflexible  order,  even  in  what  appears  petty  and  insignifi- 
cant ; 

"  Silence  in  hours  of  study  and  work  ; 

"  Quietness  in  the  general  demeanour  ; 

"  Care  and  punctuality  in  the  completion  of  all  works  com- 
manded ; 

"  Decent  manners  towards  every  person  and  in  every  place  ; 
decorum  at  meals ; 

"  Respect  for  the  property  of  the  school  and  for  all  property 
of  others ; 

"  The  utmost  caution  with  regard  to  fire  and  light ; 

"  Cleanliness  of  person  and  of  clothing ; 

"  Simplicity  in  dress,  and  in  the  manner  of  living ;  accord- 
ing to  the  golden  rule,  'Every  thing  in  its  time  and  place.  Let 
things  have  their  course.  Provide  things  honest  in  the  sight 
of  all  men.' 


60  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION  : 

II- 

"  1.  All  the  pupils  inhabit  one  house  and  one  room  ;  for  they  ^ 
must  live  in  union,  and  form  one  family  of  brothers,  loving  one  1 
another. 

"  2.  The  whole  order  of  the  house  rests  on  the  master  of  the    ; 
school ;  he  Hves  in  the  midst  of  the  pupils ;  he  has  the  imme-    j 
diate  superintendence  of  them,  of  their  conduct,  and  of  their    ] 
labours.   He  ought  to  be  to  those  under  his  care  what  a  father 
of  a  Christian  family  is  in  his  household. 

"  He  is  responsible  for  the  accounts  of  the  establishment,  i 
the  registers,  the  result  of  the  quarterly  examinations,  and  for  ] 
the  formation  of  the  necessary  Usts.  He  has  the  special  care  \ 
of  the  provisions,  the  rooms,  the  library,  the  furniture.  He  is  J 
i-esponsible  to  the  school- administration  for  good  order  in  every  i 
department. 

"  3.  The  oldest  and  most  intelligent  of  the  students  assists  ^ 
the  master.  He  is  called  the  master's  assistant  He  must  j 
take  care —  , 

"  That  every  one  in  the  room  under  his  care  rises  and  goes  j 
to  bed  at  the  appointed  moment :  ] 

"  That  nobody  without  the  master's  permission,  leave  the  : 
house,  smoke,  or  carry  candles  into  the  passages  or  the  loft:      ; 

"  That  no  one  wantonly  injure  the  windows,  doors,  or  furni- 
ture, or  throw  any  thing  out  of  the  windows :  ' 
"  That  the  utmost  cleanUness  be  observed  in  the  sitting-room,  ^ 
the  passage,  and  the  sleeping-room ;                                                 ] 
"  That  all  clothes,  linen,  books,  &c.,  be  in  their  places ; 
"  That  no  noise  be  made  in  going  up  and  down  stairs,  or  in  . 
going  to  the  children's  school.                                                           1 
"  It  is  his  especial  business  to  help  his  companions  in  the  \ 
preparation  of  their  lessons,  to  hear  them  repeat,  to  prepare  - 
the  exercises  for  their  master,  and  to  assist  him  as  far  as  he  can 
in  all  his  business.     He  ought  to  be  to  his  fellow-students  what   ; 
a  good  elder  brother  is  to  his  young  brothers  and  sisters.     He 
is  chosen,  on  the  master's  recommendation,  by  the  school-corn-   ; 
nuttee.  ' 

"  4.  The  humbler  sort  of  household  work,  such  as  cleaning 
and  putting  in  order  the  rooms,  dusting  the  furniture,  fetching  1 


m  PRUSSIA.  61 

water,  cleaving  wood,  &c.,  is  done  by  the  pupils,  who  serve  a 
week  in  rotation.  The  time  of  service  is  prolonged  by  order 
of  the  master,  in  case  of  negligence. 

"  5.  The  order  of  the  day  is  as  follows — 
"  In  winter  at  five,  in  summer  at  half-past  four  in  the  morn- 
ing, at  a  given  signal,  all  the  pupils  must  rise,  make  their  beds, 
and  dress. 

"  Half  an  hour  after  rising,  that  is  at  half-past  five  in  winter, 
and  five  in  the  summer,  all  the  pupils  must  be  assembled  in  the 
school-room.  The  assistant  first  pronounces  the  morning 
benediction,  and  each  pupil  then  occupies  himself  in  silence 
till  six.  If  any  repetitions  stand  over  from  the  preceding  day, 
they  must  be  heard  now.     After  this,  breakfast. 

"  In  winter,  as  well  as  in  summer,  the  lessons  begin  at  six 
o'clock,  and  last  till  a  quarter  before  eight.  Then  the  students 
go  with  their  master  to  the  children's  school,  attached  to  the 
normal  school,  where  they  remain  till  ten,  either  listening,  or 
assisting  in  small  classes ;  some  teaching,  or  they  may  be  em- 
ployed in  their  own  studies  at  home. 

"  To  these  employments  succeeds  an  hour  of  recreation,  and 
then  an  hour's  lesson  in  the  establishment. 

"  At  noon,  the  students  assemble  in  the  master's  room 
where  they  find  a  frugal  but  wholesome  meal,  consistrng  of 
vegetables,  meat  and  fish,  at  the  rate  of  two  thaler  (six  shil- 
lings) a  month. 

"  The  time  which  remains,  till  one  o'clock,  may  be  passed 
in  music,  gardening,  and  walking. 

"  In  the  afternoon,  from  one  till  three,  while  the  master  is 
teaching  in  the  town  school,  the  pupils  accompany  him,  as  in 
the  morning.     From  three  till  five,  lessons. 

'•  The  succeeding  hours,  from  five  till  seven,  are,  according 
to  the  seasons,  employed  in  bodily  exercises,  or  in  the  school- 
room in  quiet  occupations.  At  seven  they  assemble  at  a  sim- 
ple cold  supper. 

"  From  seven  to  eight  they  practise  singing  and  the  violin  ; 
then  repetitions  or  silent  study  till  ten,  when  all  go  to  bed. 
"  Two  afternoons  of  each  week  are  free,  and  are  usually 


62  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

spent  in  long  walks.     The  time  from  four  to  six,  or  from  five 
to  seven,  is  devoted  to  the  practice  of  music. 

"  On  Sundays  or  holidays  all  the  pupils  must  attend  divine 
service  in  the  church  of  the  town,  and  assist  in  the  choir. 
The  remainder  of  these  days  may  be  passed  by  every  one  as 
he  pleases :  in  the  course  of  the  morning,  however,  the  stu- 
dents must  write  down  the  heads  of  the  sermon  (the  text,  the 
main  subject,  the  distribution,)  and  in  the  evening  must  give 
an  account  of  the  manner  in  which  they  have  spent  the  day. 

"  Every  evening,  as  well  as  on  the  mornings  of  Sundays 
and  holidays,  a  portion  of  time  is  spent  in  meditation  in 
common. 

"  A  few  Sundays  after  the  setting-in  of  winter,  and  after 
the  festival  of  St.  John,*  the  students  partake  of  the  Lord's 
supper,  in  company  with  their  masters. 

"  Every  student,  from  the  time  of  his  admission,  must 
solemnly  engage  (in  token  of  which  he  gives  his  hand  to  the 
master  and  signs  his  name)  to  follow  the  rules  of  the  house, 
which  may  be  summed  up  in  these  three  principal  maxims : — 

"  1.  Order  in  behaviour  and  in  work,  combined  with  the 
utmost  simplicity  in  all  things ;  to  the  end  that  the  students 
who  belong  to  the  poorer  classes,  and  whose  destiny  it  is  to 
be  teachers  of  the  poor,  may  willingly  continue  in  that 
condition,  and  may  not  learn  to  know  wants  and  wishes  which 
they  will  not,  and  ought  not  to  have  the  powder  of  satisfying. 
For  this  reason,  they  must  be  their  own  servants. 

"  2.  As  to  the  course  of  instruction,  the  repetitions  must  al- 
ways be  heard  by  the  forwardest  pupils.  The  pupils  must  be 
made  as  much  as  possible,  to  teach  each  other  what  they  have 
learned  of  the  master,  in  order  that  they  may  perfect  them- 
selves in  the  art  of  teaching. 

"  3.  Piety  and  the  fear  of  God  should  be  the  soul  of  their 
little  community,  but  a  true  Christian  piety,  a  fear  of  God  ac- 
cording to  knowledge  and  light,  so  that  the  pupils  may  do  all 
to  the  Glory  of  God,  and  may  lead  a  simple,  humble,  and  se- 

•  May  6th. 


IN  PRUSSIA.  63 

fene  life,  resigned  and  contented  in  labour  and  travail,  accord- 
ing to  the  exhortation  of  the  Apostle : 

"  *  Fulfil  ye  my  joy,  that  ye  be  like-minded,  having  the 
same  love,  being  of  one  accord,  of  one  mind.  Let  nothing  be 
done  through  strife  or  vain-glory ;  but  in  lowliness  of  mind  let 
each  esteem  other  better  than  themselves." — Philipp.  ii.  2,  3. 

"  And  as  many  as  walk  according  to  the  rule,  peace  be  on 
them  and  mercy  !" — Galat.  vi.  16. 

"  I  abstain  from  all  comments  on  these  two  sets  of  regula- 
tions. The  greater  number  of  the  small  normal  schools  of 
Prussia  are  founded  and  governed  in  the  same  spirit.  All 
rest  on  the  sacred  basis  of  Christianity.  But  beneath  their 
simple  lowly  exterior  we  trace  a  taste  for  instruction,  a  feeling 
for  nature,  a  love  of  music,  which  take  away  every  vestige 
of  coarseness,  and  give  these  modest  institutions  a  character 
of  liberality.  Undoubtedly  all  this  is  the  offspring  of  the  na- 
tional manners,  and  of  the  genius  of  Germany ;  yet  Christian 
charity  might  transplant  a  good  deal  of  it  into  our  country." 


THE   END. 


SCHOOL   BOOKS. 


The  great  object  of  our  public  or  common  schools  is  to  im- 
part a  plain  but  useful  education  to  children  throughout  the 
country,  to  diffuse  general  knowledge,  rather  than  cultivate  par- 
ticular branches  of  learning,  to  improve  the  moral  character  and 
to  extend  the  blessings  of  religion  and  the  practice  of  virtue. 
To  pursue  this  course  with  any  prospect  of  success,  it  is  neces- 
sary that  there  sholild  be  some  system  adopted  in  the  schools, 
and  that  the  pupils  be  possessed  of  the  very  best  Elementary 
Books,  in  Spelling,  Reading,  Arithmetic,  Grammar,  Geography, 
History,  &c.  Without  books  of  this  kind  the  teacher  can  do 
but  little  to  produce  harmony  of  action  in  his  school,  the  pupils 
progress  will  be  slow,  unpleasant  to  himself,  and  disheartening 
to  both  the  teachers  and  directors.  While  on  the  other  hand  if 
a  regular  and  graduated  series  of  books  of  the  first  character 
be  in  use,  a  thorough  system  prevails ;  every  moment  of  time  is 
available  or  devoted  to  one  or  other  of  the  classes.  As  a  natu- 
ral consequent  the  progress  of  the  scholar  is  rapid  ;  and  as  every 
thing  which  he  learns  in  one  day  has  had  a  foundation  of  a 
simpler  but  broader  character  in  the  studies  of  the  preceding, 
so  is  his  mind  capable  of  analysing  and  retaining  each  fresh  ad- 
dition to  his  store  of  knowledge. 

It  is  believed  that  books  of  this  nature,  and  calculated  to  pro- 
duce such  good  effects,  are  offered  in  the  following  series,  by 
Emerson,  and  others.  So  far  as  published,  they  are  applicable 
to  the  present  wants  of  the  schools.  Those  enumerated  below 
have  already  had  the  test  of  use  in  the  large  Common  Schools 
of  Philadelphia,  and  in  the  New  England  Slates,  as  also  in  many 
of  the  best  private  schools  of  the  Union.  The  series  will  be 
continued  till  it  embraces  all  the  works  necessary  to  the  wants 
of  the  largest  institution.  Those  already  before  the  public,  are 
The  New  National  Spelling  Book,^ 

The  Fourth  Class  Reader,  J  By  Benjamin  U.  Emer- 

The  Third  Class  Reader,  I      son.  Principal  of  the 

The  Second  Class  Reader,  ["     Adams'       Grammar 

The  First  Class  Reader,  and  School,  Boston. 

Academical  Speaker.  ^ 

T-u     TVT    *u    A        •         A  wu      ^'    ^  By  Frederick  Emerson, 
Ihe  North  American  Arithmetic,       "^t*  •„„• i  ^r  *u„   nJ 


Part  I. 


American  Arithmetic,  'p,-^,,^-^^^  ^f  the  De' 

rru'^i^^\,     .         .         A   •*!-      X-      /■  partment  of  Arithme- 

The  North  American  Arithmetic,  T  [^^    -^  ^y^^  Doylston 

^^"  ^^'                                       J  School,  Boston. 


SCHOOL  BOOKS.  65 

An  Improved  English  Grammar,  in  press. 
History  of  the  United  States,  ^ 

History  of  England,  >  By  John  Russell,  A.  M. 

History  of  France,  ) 

Lardner's  Outlines  of  General  History,  with  Chronological 
Tables,  &c.  and  questions  for  examination  of  the  students. 

The  Speller,  and  the  Reading  books  correspond  in  arrange- 
ment to  those  referred  to  by  Mr.  Bulwer,  as  used  in  the  Duchy 
of  Saxe  Weimar,  and  other  of  the  Schools  under  the  Prussian 
System. 

The  Speller,  which  is  designed  to  be  the  first  one  placed  in 
the  hands  of  children,  presents  the  alphabet  in  different  sizes  and 
characters,  illustrated  words,  &c.,  then  follows  in  regular  grada- 
tion short  exercises  in  spelling  from  words  of  two  letters  up- 
ward. Interspersed  with  these  are  easy  sentences  gradually 
advancing  into  reading  lessons,  consisting  of  descriptions  of  ob- 
jects or  actions  with  which  the  child  has  long  been  familiar ;  so 
that  in  his  first  effbrts  to  connect  words  which  he  has  just  learned 
to  spell,  his  mind  is  not  taxed  beyond  its  strength  to  understand 
those  words  when  forming  a  sentence.  These  lessons  progress 
describing  the  external  things  of  nature,  illustrating  moral  ac- 
tions, and  inculcating  religious  feelings  in  plain  and  simple  lan- 
"guage.  A  key  to  the  ditlerent  vowel  sounds  is  placed  at  the 
top  of  each  page,  and  figures  over  the  vowel  in  the  words  refer 
to  the  key,  thereby  fixing  the  sound  of  the  letter  in  its  particular 
situation,  and  establishing  the  true  pronunciation  of  the  words. 
There  are  many  other  improvements  in  the  book  which  will 
strike  the  examiner  as  advantageous  to  the  cause  of  education : 
to  describe  them  here  requires  too  much  space,  and  therefore 
those. wishing  to  become  acquainted  with  their  character  are  re- 
ferred to  the  book  itself. 

The  Reading  books  are  four  in  number,  designated  as  Emer- 
son's Fourth,  Third,  Second  and  First  Class  Readers.  In  these 
numbers,  they  are  arranged  upon  the  plan  usually  adopted  by 
experienced  teachers,  having  the  first,  as  the  highest  class  in  the 
school,  the  books  are  therefore  named  in  the  order  of  the  classes, 
and  the  "  Fourth  Class,  or  Lessons  for  little  Readers"  succeeds 
the  Spelling  book.  The  lessons  commence  with  words  of  not 
more  than  three  letters,  and  terminate  with  dissyllables.  The 
style  and  sentiment  is  easy,  and  it  is  hoped  will  prove  intelligible 
to  the  tender  minds  for  which  it  was  designed,  as  well  as  condu- 
'  cive  to  their  moral  improvement. 

To  several  of  the  first  reading  lessons  a  Spelling  lesson  is  sub- 
joined. This  has  been  done  merely  as  a  sampler,  and  to  remind 
the  teacher  that  the  practice  of  exercising  his  younger  pupils  in 
the  orthography  of  the  most  prominent  words  in  each  lesson,  im- 

9 


66  DESCRIPTION  OF 

mediately  nfter  they  have  read  the  same,  is  attended  with  much 
advantage  and  will  be  found  in  no  small  degree  to  promote  their 
improvement  in  reading  as  well  as  spelling. 

The  character  of  the  Third,  Second  and  First  Class  Readers 
■will  be  fully  understood  by  a  perusal  of  the  following  extracts 
from  the  Author's  introduction,  and  from  his  "  Suggestions  to 
teachers"  contained  in  the  first  part  of  each  book ;  especially 
that  portion  from  the  First  Class  Reader,  which  more  fully  ex- 
plains the  system,  and  is  therefore  first  given.  It  is  almost  unne- 
cessary to  remark  that  the  Edinburgh  sessional  school  is  conduct- 
ed on  similar  principles  to  those  of  the  Prussian  government. 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHERS. 

FROM  FIRST  CLASS  READER.  1 

J 

As  the  present  is  an  age  of  experiment,  as  well  as  improvement  in  the  modes  ' 
of  teaching,  the  autlior  ventures  to  suggest  the  introduction,  into  our  American 
schools,  of  a  part  of  the  explanatory  system  of  instruction,  so  successfully  prac-  J 
tised  in  the  Edinburgh  Sessional  School,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Wood.  ^ 

We  cannot  better  explain  this  system,  in  its  application  to  the  exercise  of  ■ 

reading,  tlian  by  presenting  an  extract  from  Mr.  Wood's  valuable  work.  I 

"  Before  entering  upon  the  consideration  of  the  reading  department,  it  inay  , 

be  proper  to  premise  some  general  observations,  on  that  method  of  explana-  < 

tion,  which  has  been  so  highly  approved  of  in  the  Sessional   School.     Its  ■ 

object  is  threefold  :  first,  To  render  more  easy  and  pleasing  the  acquisition  of  ; 
the  mechanical  art  of  reading;  secondly,  To  turn  to  advantage  the  particular 

instruction  contained  in  every  individual  passage  which  is  read;  and,  above  ' 

all,  thirdly,  To  give  the  pupil,  by  means  of  a  minute  analysis  of  each  passage,  ' 

a  general  command  of  his  own  language.  1 

"  It  is  of  great  importance  to  the  proper  understanding  of  the  method,  that 

all  these  objects  should  be  kept  distinctly  in  view.     With  regard  to  the  first,  i 
no  one,  who  has  not  witnessed  the  scheme  in  operation,  can  well  imagine  the 

animation  and  energy  which  it  inspires.     It  is  the  constant  remark  of  almost  j 

every  stranger  who  visits  the  Sessional  School,  that  its  pupils  have  not  at  all  j 

the  ordinary  appearance  of   school-boys,  doomed   to  an  unwilling  task,  but  i 
rather  the  happy  faces  of  children  at  their  sports.     This  distinction  is  chiefly 

to  be  attributed  to  that  part  of  the  system  of  which  we  are  here  treating ;  by  ^ 

which,  in  place  of  harassing  the  pupil,  with  a  mere  mechanical  routine  of  ! 

sounds  and  technicalities,  his  attention  is  excited,  his  curiosity  is  gratified  j 

and  his  fancy  is  amused.  j 

''In  the  second  place,  when  proper  books  are  put  into  the  hands  of  the  j 


SCHOOL  BOOKS.                                                              67  \ 

pcholars,  every  article  which  they  read  may  be  made  the  means,  not  only  of  ■ 
forming  m  their  yojthful  minds  the  invaluable  habit  of  attention,  but  also  of  .1 
communicating  to  them,  along  with  facility  in  the  art  of  reading,  much  infor-  ! 
mation,  which  is  both  adapted  to  their  present  age,  and  may  be  of  use  to  them  1 
the  rest  of  their  lives.  How  different  is  the  result,  where  the  mechanical  art  ■ 
is  made  the  exclusive  object  of  the  master's  and  the  pupil's  attention  !  How  ;; 
many  fine  passages  have  been  read  in  tiie  most  pompous  manner,  without  j 
rousing  a  single  sentiment  in  the  mind  of  the  performer !  How  many,  in 
which  they  have  left  behind  them  only  the  most  erroneous  and  absurd  impres-  \ 
sions  and  associations  !  \ 
"  But,  in  the  last  place,  they  little  know  the  full  value  of  the  explanatory  j 
method,  who  think  it  unnecessary,  in  any  case,  to  carry  it  beyond  what  is  ab- 
solutely essential  to  enable  the  pupil  to  understand  the  meaning  of  the  indi-  ;; 
vidual  passage  before  him  at  the  time.  As  well,  indeed,  might  it  be  main-  ' 
tained,  that,  in  parsing,  the  only  object  in  view  should  be  the  elucidation  of 
the  particular  sentence  parsed  ;  or,  that,  in  reading  Csesar's  Commentaries  in  , 
a  grammar  school,  the  pupil's  sole  attention  should  be  directed  to  the  manner  | 
in  which  the  Gallic  war  was  conducted.  A  very  little  reflection,  however,  ^ 
should  be  sufficient  to  show,4iow  erroneous  such  a  practice  would  be  in  either  ' 
case.  The  passages  gone  over  in  school  must  of  course  be  very  few  and  li-  ] 
mited,  and  the  direct  information  communicated  through  them  extremely  ^ 
scanty.  The  skill  of  the  instructer  must  therefore  be  exhibited,  not  merely  i 
in  enabling  the  pupil  to  undersand  these  few  passages,  but  in  making  every  \ 
lesson  bear  upon  the  proper  object  of  his  labours,  the  giving  a  general  know-  * 
ledge  and  full  command  of  the  language,  which  it  is  his  province  to  teach, 
together  with  as  much  other  useful  information,  as  the  passage  may  suggest  ] 
and  circumstances  will  admit.  As  in  parsing;  accordingly,  no  good  teacher  j 
would  be  satisfied  with  examining  his  pupil  upon  the  syntactic  construction  of  j 
the  passage  before  him  as  it  stands,  and  making  him  repeat  the  rules  of  that 
construction,  but  would  also,  at  the  same  time  call  upon  him  to  notice  the  va-  ; 
riations,  which  must  necessarily  be  made  in  certain  hypothetical  circum-  ' 
stances  ;  so,  also,  in  the  department  of  >vhich  we  are  now  treating,  he  will  not  I 
consider  it  enough,  that  the  child  may  have,  from  the  context  or  otherwise,  ; 
formed  a  general  notion  of  the  meaning  of  a  whole  passage,  but  will  also,  'i 
with  a  view  to  future  exigences,  direct  his  attention  to  the  full  force  and  sig- 
nification of  the  particular  terms  employed,  and  likewise,  in  some  cases  at  : 
least,  to  their  roots,  derivatives,  and  compounds.  Thus,  for  example,  if  in  any 
lesson  the  scholar  read  of  one  having  "done  an  unprecedented  act,"  it  might  be 
quite  sufficient  for  uuilerstandmg  the  meaning  of  that  single  passage,  to  tell*  j 
him  that  "  no  other  person  had  ever  done  the  like;"  but  this  would  by  no  ' 
means  fully  accomplish  the  object  we  have  in  view.  The  child  would  thus  * 
receive  no  clear  notion  of  the  word  unprecedented,  and  would  therefore,  in  all  ^ 
probability,  on  the  very  next  occasion  of  its  recurrence,  or  of  the  recurrence  \ 
of  other  words  from  the  same  root,  be  as  much  at  a  loss  as  before.  But  direct  ^ 
his  attention  to  the  threefold  composition  of  tiiis  word,  the  un,  the  pre,  and 


GS  DESCRIPTION  OF  1 

the  cede.     Ask  him  the  meaning  of  the  syllable  «n  in  ccvnposition,  and  teil 

him  to  point  out  to  you  (or,  if  necessary,  point  out  to  him)  any  y,hei  words,  in.  ■] 

which  it  has  this  sicrnification  of  not,  (such  as  uncommon,  uncivil)  and,  if  ] 

there  be  leisure,  any  other  syllables  which  have  in  composition  a  similar  effect,  1 

such  as  in,  with  all  its  modifications  of  ig,  11,  im,  ir,  also  dis,  and  noii,  with  < 

examples.     Next  investigate  the  meaning  of  the  syllable  pre  in  compositioni  jj 

and  illustrate  it  with   examples,  (such   as  previous,  premature.)    Then  exa-  i 
mine  in  like  manner  the  meaning  of  the  syllable  cede,  and  having  shown  that  in 

composition  it  generally  signifies  to  go,  demand  the  signification  of  its  various  1 
compounds,  precede,  proceed,  succeed,  accede,  recede,  exceed,  intercede.     The 

pupil  will  in  this  manner  acquire  not  only  a  much  more  distinct  and  lasting  ] 

impression  of  the  signification  of  the  word  in  question,  but  a  key  also  to  a  J 

vast  variety  of  other  words  in  the  language.     This  too  he  will  do  far  more  i 

pleasingly  and  satisfactorily  in  the  manner  which  is  here  recommended,  than  ■ 

by  being  enjoined  to  commit  them  to  memory  from  a  vocabulary  at  home  as  a  1 

task.     It  is  very  true  that  it  would  not  be  poseiblc  to  go  over  every  word  of  a  ; 

lesson  with  the  same  minuteness,  as  that  we  have  now  instanced.     A  certain  ] 

portion  of  time  should  therefore  be  set  apart  for  this  examination  :  and,  after  ' 

those  explanations  have  been  given,  which  are  necessary  to  the  right  under-  • 

standing  of  the  passage,  such  minuter  investigations  only  may  be  gone  into  , 

as  time  will  admit.     It  is  no  more  essential,  that  every  word  should  be  gone  '< 

over  in  this  way,  than  that  every  word  should  always  be  syntactically  parsed.  * 

A  single  sentence  well  done  may  prove  of  the  greatest  service  to  the  scholar  ^ 

in  his  future  studies."  i 

In  applying  this  system  of  instruction  to  the  First-Class  Reader,  I  would 

recommend  that  the  pupils  have  the  reading  exercise  for  the  day  previously  i 

assigned  to  them,  in  order  that  there  may  be  an  opportunity  for  them  care-  : 

fnlly  to  study  the  same,  in  reference  to  the  examination  that  is  to  follow.     In  • 

reading  the  book  the  first  time,  the  examination  should  be  general,  rather  , 

than  otherwise  ;  let  the  pupils  be  questioned  in  regard  to  the  general  sense  | 

of  the  piece,  and  the  meaning  of  promiueiit  words  in  it.     Explanation  and  il-  -i 

lustration   should  be  given  by  the  teaCfcher  ;  such  as  the  meaning  of  any  pas-  ] 

sage,  its  allusions,  figures,  &c.  may  require.     Care  should  be  taken  that  the  • 

scholars  do  not  forget  these  explanations  ;  this  may  be  prevented  by  recurring  : 
to  them  at  subsequent  examinations.     In  order  to  show  the  nature  of  this  J?rs< 
examination,  a  specimen  is  subjoined. 

In  going  through  the  volume  the  second  time,  a  more  particular  examina- 

.  tion  should  be  instituted.     Not  only  the  same  kind  of  questions,  which  have  ^ 
already  been  put,  are  to  be  repeated,  but  the  pupils  should  be  examined  with 

reference  to  the  analysis  of  words,  their  inflections  and  analogies  ;  and  also  t 
with  reference  to  the  rhetorical  features  of  the  composition,  and  the  topics  of 

general  information  suggested  by  the  text.     •  I 

Of  this  second  examination,  a  specimen,  such  as  our  limits  would  allow,  is  J 

also  subjoined.     Its  nature  and  character,  the  extent  to  which  it  may  be  car-  - 


SCHOOL  BOOKS.  69 

ried,  and  the  interest,  which  it  may  be  made  to  impart  to  the  exercise,  will  at 
once  be  felt  and  appreciated  by  every  intelligent  teacher. 

We  will  take  for  an  example  of  the  following  examinations,  an  extract 
from  the  writings  of  the  Rev.  Sidney  Smith. 

APPEAL  IM  BEHALF  OF  THE  BLIND. 

The  author  of  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes  has  told  us,  "  that  the  light  is  sweet  • 
that  it  is  a  pleasant  thing  for  the  eyes  to  behold  the  sun."  The  sense  of  sight 
is,  indeed,  the  highest  bodily  privilege,  the  purest  physical  pleasure,  which 
man  has  derived  from  his  Creator : — to  see  that  wandering  fire,  after  he  has 
finished  his  journey  through  the  nations,  coming  back  to  us  in  the  eastern 
heavens ;  the  mountains  painted  with  light ;  the  floating  splendour  of  the  sea  ; 
the  earth  waking  from  deep  slumber ;  the  day  flowing  down  the  sides  of  the 
hills,  till  it  reaches  the  secret  valleys ;  the  little  insect  recalled  to  life ;  the 
bird  trying  her  wings;  man  going  forth  to  his  labour;  each  created  being 
moving,  thinking,  acting,  contriving,  according  to  the  scheme  and  compass 
of  its  nature ;  by  force,  by  cunning,  by  reason,  by  necessity. — Is  it  possible 
to  joy  in  this  animated  scene,  and  feel  no  pity  for  the  sons  of  darkness  1  for 
the  eyes  that  will  never  taste  the  sweet  light?  for  the  poor,  clouded  in  ever- 
lasting gloom'? 

If  you  ask  me  why  they  are  miserable  and  dejected ;  I  turn  you  to  the  plen- 
tiful valleys  ;  to  the  fields,  bringing  forth  their  increase  ;  to  the  freshness  and 
flowers  of  the  earth  ;  to  the  endless  variety  of  its  colours;  to  the  grace,  the 
symmetry,  the  shape  of  all  it  cherishes,  and  all  it  bears.  These  you  have  for- 
gotten, because  you  have  always  enjoyed  them  ;  but  these  are  the  means  by 
which  God  Almighty  makes  man  what  he  is ;  cheerful,  lively,  erect ;  full  of 
enterprise,  mutable,  glancing  from  heaven  to  earth ;  prone  to  labour  and  to 
act. 

This  is  the  reason  why  the  blind  are  miserable  and  dejected — because 
their  soul  is  mutilated,  and  dismembered  of  its  best  sense  ;  because  they  are 
a  laughter,  and  a  ruin,  and  the  boys  of  the  streets  mock  at  their  stumbling 
feet. 

Therefore,  I  implore  you,  by  the  son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  the  blind.  If 
there  is  not  pity  for  all  sorrows,  turn  the  full  and  perfect  man  to  meet  the  in- 
clemency of  fate.  Let  not  those  who  have  never  tasted  the  pleasures  of  ex- 
istence, be  assailed  by  any  of  its  sorrows.  The  eyes  that  are  never  gladdened 
with  light,  should  never  stream  with  tears. 

First  examination  on  the  foregoing  extract. 

What  is  the  title  of  the  piece  1  Who  is  the  author?  What  sacred  writer 
does  he  quote  ?  What  is  the  quotation?  What  is  the  "  highest  bodily  privi- 
lege?" What  is  meant  by  the  word  "  bodily  ?"  What  is  here  meant  by  the 
word  "  physical  ?"  What  pleasures  are  higher  and  purer  than  bodily  or  physi- 


70                                                        DESCRIPTION  OF  ( 

cal  ones?     What  other  senses  have  we,  besides  that  of  sight  ?     Whose  giu 

are  they?    What  is  the  "  wandering  fire,"  mentioned  in  the  textl    Why  is  it  ^ 

spoken  of  as  " coming  back  to  us  in  the  eastern  heavens?"     What  are  the  - 

effects  of  its  rising,  so  beautifully  described  in  the  text?     What  wakes  the  t 

insects  and  the  bird.*,  and  sends  man  forth  to  his  labour  ?     What  are  the  " 

effects  of  its  return  on  other  created  beings?     Do  these  effects  of  light,  prove  ' 

the  truth  of  the  sacred  writer's  assertion  quoted  above?     What  feeling  should  ; 

our  enjoyment  of  the  morning  light,  excite  towards  the  blind  ?     What  beau-  - 

tiful  objects  of  sight  are  spoken  of?     Why  do  we  forget  their  beauty  and  * 

value?     What  is  the  effect  of  the  beauties  of  nature  on  man ?     Why  are  the  I 

blind  sad  and  dejected  ?     Why  are  the  blind  peculiarly  entitled  to  our  com-  '. 

passion  ?  \ 

Second  examination  on  the  foregoing  extract  \ 

What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  "  author  ?"    What  is  the  equivalent  word 
applied  to  a  female  ?     What  is  the  meaning  of  "highest?"     Of  "purest?"  i 
What  is  the  effect  of  adding  the  syllable  est,  to  a  word  expressing  a  quality  ?  i 
Give  some  examples.     What  is  expressed -by  the  word  "  physical  ?"   To  what  < 
class  of  words  do  most  of  those  which  end  in  al  belong?     When  the  termina- 
tion al  is  added  to  a  noun,  into  what  is  it  changed?    Define  "  Creator."    From  j 
what  verb  is  it  derived  ?     What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  "wandering?"  j 
From  what  is  it  derived?    What  is  the  effect  of  adding  the  termination  ing  to 
a  verb?     Give  examples.   What  does  the  termination  in^  generally  express? 
Ans. — Continued  action.     What  is  the  meaning  of  "  finished  ?"     From  what  ! 
is  it  derived?     What  are  some  of  the  other  derivatives  of  the  same  word. 
What  does  the  termination  e(Z  generally  express?     Give  examples.     What  is  J 
meant  by  the  word  "  nations  ?"      What  adjective  is  formed   from  nation  ? 
How?  Define  "  eastern."  From  what  is  it  derived?  What  other  adjectives  are  , 
derived  from  the  same  word  ?  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  "heavens"  in 
this  connexion  .'    What  other  meaning  has  it?  What  adjective  is  derived  from 
the  word  mountain  ?    What  is  meant  by  "  the  mountains  painted  with  light?"  J 
Is  this  a  literal  or  a  figurative  expression?     What  other  instances  occur  im-  •: 
mediately  afterwards  of  the  same  figure?     Whafis  the  "floating  splendour 
of  the  sea  ?"     What  is  meant  by  "  the  earth  waking  from  her  deep  slumber  ?"  ^ 
Point  out  the  words,  in  this  part  of  the  piece,  used  metaphorically.     Why  is  I 
the  day  represented   as  "  flowing  down   the  sides  of  the  hills  ?"     What   is  "" 
"  painted"  derived  from?     Name  otiier  derivatives  of  the  same  word.     From  i 
what  is  the  word  "  waking"  derived  ?     What   other  words  have  the   same 
derivation?     Give  some  of  the  derivations  of  the  word  " deep  !"     Of  "  slum-  ' 
her,"  of"  day."     How  do  "hills"  differ  from  mountains?     What  is  the  dimi-  ] 
nutive  for  "hill?"     What  are  "valleys?"     Why  "s  the  term  "secret"  ap- 
plied to  them  ?     What  is  the  meaning  of  "  recalled  ?"     What  does  the  first  ] 
part  of  the  word  "  recalled"  signify  ?     Can  you  give  any  other  examples  of  '] 
that  syllable  having  the  signification  (as  remit,  revert,  &c.)     What  does  the 
latter  part  of  "  recalled"  signify  ?     Give  examples;  (jxs  miscalled,  uncalled.)  « 
What  is  the  meaning  of  "  life  ?"     What  are  some  of  the  derivatives  and  kin-  ^ 


SCHOOL  BOOKS.  71 

d red  words.  {As  lively,  lifeless,  livelihood,  Slc.)  Define  "bird."  How  does 
p  "  bird"  differ  from  an  "  insect "i"  Define  "trying."  Give  the  derivatives 
of  try  Define  "  wings."  Give  tlie  derivatives  of  it.  What  do  you  consider 
to  be  comprehended  in  the  term  "created  being]"  Is  it  limited  in  the  text 
to  Jiving  beings'!"  Is  the -term,  properly  speaking,  more  comprehensive T 
What  is  the  origin  of  the  term  being?  Does  it  apply  to  unorganised  or  life- 
le^  matter,  as  well  as  to  living  creatures  1  Define,  and  give  some  of  the 
derivatives  of  the  following  words;  move,  think,  act,  contrive,  possible.  What 
kind  of  animals  obtain  their  food  by  "  force  V'  What  animals  by  "  cunning?" 
What  by  "reason?"  Is  it  common  to  find  the  word  "joy"  used  as  a  verb  in 
prose  writing  ?  What  is  the  meaning  of  "animated  ?"  Its  origin  ?  Its  kin- 
dred words?  What  is  the  original  meaning  of  "scene?"  Is  it  applied  in  the 
text  literally  or  metaphorically?  What  is  meant  by  the  term,  "sons  of  dark- 
ness ?"  What  figure  of  rhetoric  is  this  an  example  of?  What  figure  of 
rhetoric  is  used  in  the  expression,  "  eyes  that  will  never  taste  the  sweet 
light !"  &c. 

The  above  Specimens  are  deemed  sufficient  to  show  the  nature  and  charac- 
ter of  the  proposed  system.  The  "Second-Class  Reader"  and  "  Third-Class 
Reader"  will  contain  similar  Specimens  adapted  to  the  earlier  stages  of  school 
instruction. 


72  DKSCRfPTION  or 


4 

« 


PROM  THE  SECOND  CLASS  R&ADER. 

"  The  title  of  the  present  publication  sufficiently  indicates  its 
design  and  the  place  it  is  destined  to  occupy  in  the  series  of  read- 
inof  books  of  which  it  forms  a  part. 

"  As  it  is  intended  to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  middle  class 
in  common  schools,  the  compiler  has  endeavoured  to  adapt  it  to 
the  intellectual  advancement  of  those  pupils  who  may  be  sup- 
posed to  hold  a  place  in  that  class.  He  has  sought  for  a  requi- 
site number  of  lessons  suited  to  the  understanding  of  young  per- 
sons and  likely  to  interest  them,  and  whose  style  is  at  the  same 
time  easy,  perspicuous  and  unaffected." 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHERS,  IN  THE  SECOND  CLASS  READER. 

In  the  First  Class  Reader,  we  took  the  liberty  to  suggest  the  propriety  of 
introducing  into  scho(j^s,  in  connexion  with  the  reading  lessons,  a  system  of 
explanation  and  interrogation  essentially  the  same  with  that  which  is  prac- 
tised in  the  Edinburgh  Sessional  School,  under  the  superintendence  of  Mr. 
Wood.  We  there  gave  a  specimen  of  the  mode  of  interrogation  to  be  used 
with  the  First  Class  Reader,  and  promised  similar  specimens  suited  to  the 
subsequent  volumes  of  the  Series. 

The  questions  in  this  part  of  the  course,  should  necessarily  be  much  more 
simple  and  easy  to  be  answered.  They  should  refer  less  frequently  to  the 
general  information  of  the  pupil,  as  being  younger  and  less  informed.  When 
applied  to  lessons  in  the  early  part  of  the  volume,  they  should  be  fewer  and 
easier  than  in  the  latter  part ;  and  in  the  progress  of  the  pupil  through  the  vo- 
lume, and  indeed  through  the  whole  series,  it  should  be  made  an  object  to 
draw  out,  at  each  examination,  any  of  the  knowledge  acquired  at  a  preceding 
exercise,  which  may  be  more  or  less  nearly  connected  with  the  subject  of  the 
lesson  under  consideration. 

We  present  two  specimens  of  the  mode  of  examining  pupils,  which  we  con- 
sider suited  to  the  capacities  of  children,  at  the  age  when  the  present  volume 
is  intended  to  be  placed  in  their  hands.  The  first  is  such  a  series  of  questions 
as  we  would  put  to  a  child  when  reading  the  early  part  of  the  volume,  or 
going  over  the  other  parts  for  the  first  time.  It  is  confined  chiefly  to  those 
points,  upon  which  information  is  conveyed  in  the  piece  itself,  sufficient  to 
furnish  answers.  The  other  specimen  refers  more  to  topics  of  general  infor- 
mation, and  is  intended  for  pupils  who  have  nearly  finished  the  volume,  or 
are  going  through  it  for  the  second  time. 


SCHOOL  BOOKS.  73 

FIRST  SPECIMEN  FOR  EXAMINATION. 

The  Murdered  Traveller. 

When  spring,  to  woods  and  wastes  around, 

Brought  bloom  and  joy  again, 
The  murdered  traveller's  bones  were  found 

Far  down  a  narrow  glen. 

The  fragrant  birch,  above  him,  hung 

Her  tassels  in  the  sky  ; 
And  many  a  vernal  blossom  sprung, 

And  nodded,  careless,  by. 

The  red-bird  warbled,  as  he  wrought 

His  hanging  nest  overhead, 
And,  fearless,  near  the  fatal  spot, 

Her  young  the  partridge  led. 

But  there  was  weeping  far  away, 

And  gentle  eyes,  for  him, 
With  watching  many  an  anxious  day 

Grew  sorrowful  and  dim. 

They  little  knew,  who  loved  him  so, 

The  fearful  death  he  met, 
When  shouting  o'er  the  desert  snow, 

Unarmed,  and  hard  beset ; 

Nor  how,  when  round  the  frosty  pole 

The  northern  dawn  was  red, 
The  mountain  wolf  and  wild-cat  stole 

To  banquet  on  the  dead  ; 

Nor  how,  when  strangers  found  his  bones, 

They  dressed  the  hasty  bier. 
And  marked  his  grave  with  nameless  stones 

Unmoistened  by  a  tear. 

But  long  they  looked,  and  feared,  and  wept, 

Within  his  distant  home. 
And  dreamed,  and  started  as  they  slept, 

For  joy  that  he  was  come. 
10 


74  DESCRIPTION  OF 

So  long  they  looked,  but  never  spied 

His  welcome  step  again, 
Nor  knew  the  fearful  death  he  died. 

Far  down  that  narrow  glen. 

QUESTIONS.  "* 

Where  were  the  murdered  traveller's  bones  found  1  When  7  What  kind 
of  tree  grew  over  the  place  where  he  lay?  Why  is  it  called  fragrant? 
What  sort  of  blossoms  grew  near?  What  birds  lived  near  the  place?  How 
did  they  employ  themselves  there  ]  What  do  you  know  about  the  partridge  ? 
What  domestic  bird  is  it  like'?  How  were  the  friends  of  the  traveller  affected 
by  his  loss?  How  long  did  they  watch  for  him  to  return?  Did  they  know 
his  fate?  At  what  season  of  the  year  was  he  killed?  How  do  you  know 
what  season  it  was  1  Was  he  armed  ■?  Did  he  cry  for  help  ?  What  became 
of  his  body  ?  Who  found  his  bones  1  How  did  they  dispose  of  them  1  Why 
was  not  his  name  put  on  the  grave-stones  ">  Why  did  not  those  who  buried 
him  mourn  for  him  1  Did  his  friends  at  home  show  any  interest  in  his  fate  1 
How?  Did  they  ever  know  what  became  of  him?  Tell  the  story  of  the 
murdered  traveller  as  well  as  you  can,  after  having  read  and  studied  the 
verses. 

SECOND  SPECIMEN  FOR  EXAMINATION. 

Perseverance. 

The  celebrated  conqueror,  Timour  the  Tartar,  was  once  forced  to  take 
shelter  from  his  enemies  in  a  ruined  building.  There  he  sat  alone  for  several 
hours.  After  some  time,  desirous  of  diverting  his  mind  from  his  hopeless  con- 
dition, he  fixed  his  attention  on  an  ant,  which  was  attempting  to  carry  a" grain 
of  corn,  larger  than  itself,  up  a  high  wall.  Its  efforts,  however,  were  unsuc- 
cessful. Again  and  again  it  strove  to  accomplish  its  object — and  failed.  Still 
undaunted,  it  returned  to  its  task,  and  sixty-nine  times  did  Timour  see  the 
grain  fall  to  the  ground.  But  the  seventieth  time  the  ant  reached  the  top  of 
the  wall  with  its  prize  ;  and  "  the  sight"  said  the  conqueror,  who  had  just  be- 
fore been  despairing,  "  gave  me  courage  at  the  moment,  and  I  have  never  for- 
gotten the  lesson  it  conveyed." 

QUESTIONS. 

Who  was  Timour  ?  Of  what  country  was  he  a  native  ?  Where  is  that 
country  situated  ?  How  bounded  ?  What  do  you  know  of  its  inhabitants, 
productions,  &c.  ?  What  misfortune  befell  Timour  ?  Where  did  he  find  a 
shelter  ?  How  did  he  divert  his  mind  from  his  misfortunes  ?  How  was  the  ant, 
which  he  observed,  employed  ?     Does  the  term  corn  apply  to  other  things 


SCHOOL  BOOKS.  76 

besides  Indian  corn  '^  What  kinds  of  grain  are  included  under  the  word  corn, 
taken  in  its  more  extended  sense  'i  How  did  the  ant  behave  when  he  failed 
in  his  enterprise  ?  How  many  times  did  he  renew  the  attempt]  What  was 
die  effect  of  this  incident  on  the  warrior?  What  did  he  remember]  Give 
an  outline  of  the  story,  as  well  as  you  can"!  What  do  you  understand  to  be 
the  lesson  or  moral  conveyed  by  this  incident  ? 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHERS. 

FROM  THE  THIRD  CLASS  READER. 

The  system  of  interrogation  and  explanation  presented  in  the  First  Class 
Reader,  and  Second  Class  Reader,  is  considered  peculiarly  appropriate  for  the 
present  volume.  Very  young  children  need  the  assistance  and  encourage- 
ment which  such  a  system  supplies,  even  more  than  those  who  are  farther  ad- 
vanced in  knowledge  ;  and  whatever  a  teacher  can  do  in  the  way  of  oral  in- 
struction produces,  for  them,  a  much  more  abundant  harvest  of  improvement 
and  satisfaction. 

We  have  therefore  thought  proper  to  present  a  more  extended  and  detailed 
specimen  of  the  mode  of  examination  and  illustration,  which  we  would  recom- 
mend in  the  use  of  this  volume,  tlian  was  thought  necessary  in  those  which 
preceded  it.  It  is  believed  that  there  is  no  piece  in  the  book  which  does  not 
afford  some  useful  information  or  pleasing  moral ;  nor  any  which  is  above  the 
comprehension  of  a  child.  But  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  interest  which  the 
child  may  feel  in  the  lesson,  may  be  indefinitely  heightened  by  a  judicious 
use  of  the  system  wliich  we  propose.  W^ith  the  exercise  of  reading,  oral  ex- 
planations should  always  be  offered  of  the  different  words,  phrases,  and  allu- 
sions, not  quite  familiar  to  the  child,  which  even  the  simplest  narrative  or  the 
most  artless  verse  may  contain  ;  and  whenever  a  fact,  principle,  or  moral  ap- 
plication suggested  by  the  text,  and  likely  to  interest  the  young  reader,  may 
occur  to  the  teacher,  he  will  do  well  to  communicate  it.  The  lively  interest 
thus  excited  in  the  reading  exercise  will  fully  repay  the  trifling  loss  of  time, 
and  will  leave  a  lasting  impression  on  the  opening  mind. 

When  the  exercise  is  finished,  a  few  questions  of  easy  solution  will  give  a 
fresh  impulse  to  reflection,  and  a  new  incentive  to  exertion.  The  teacher 
should  begin  with  those  which  can  hardly  be  missed  ;  and  should  proceed  to 
others  which  require  a  little  more  thought  and  study,  always  increasing  his 
requisitions  with  the  increased  capability  of  his  class. 

A  few  cuts  have  been  inserted  in  the  volume,  not  merely  to  gratify  the  eye, 
but  to  exercise  the  powers  of  observation  and  comparison  ;  and  it  is  believed 


76  DESCRIPTION  OF 

♦ 

that  no  intelligent  teacher  will  deem  it  entirely  unimportant,  to  qxiestion  the 
children  respecting  the  meaning  and  effect  of  these  humble,  but  not  useless, 
illustrations.  Whatever  may  profitably  exercise  the  powers  of  attention  and 
discrimination,  should  claim  the  notice  of  all  who  are  desirous  to  render  edu- 
cation practical  and  thorough. 


FIKST  SPECIMEN  FOR   EXAMINATION.  1 

Story  of  the  Tame  Bird.  ; 

I 

1.  Charles  Jones  found  a  poor  young  bird  on  the  cold  ground,  so  he  took  ( 
it  home  to  Ann.  Here,  my  dear,  said  he,  take  this  poor  bird  and  put  it  in  a  i 
cage ;  it  will  be  a  nice  bird  in  time,  and  sing  to  you  all  day.  ' 

2.  But  where  did  you  get  it,  Charles  3  said  she.     If  you  took  the  nest  I 
shall  not  thank  you  for  your  pains ;   for  I  do  not  like  to  rob  poor  birds  of  their  .^ 
house  and  their  bed,  which  they  made  for  their  young  ones  to  lie  warm  in.  ^ 
Charles  told  her  he  found  the  bird.  ', 

3.  Poor  thing,  said  Ann,  some  bad  boy  took  you  out  of  your  nest,  I  dare  i 
say,  or,  may  be,  you  got  upon  the  edge  of  it  and  fell  down.  Well,  I  must  \ 
take  care  of  you  now.  But  I  do  not  know  how  to  make  a  nest,  or  else  I  would  ' 
make  you  one ;  but  you  shall  have  some  nice  warm  wool ;  and  you  shall  have  j 
food  too,  when  you  want  it ;  so  do  not  cry,  poor  bird ;  it  makes  my  heart  ache  < 
to  hear  you  cry.     I  will  be  as  kind  to  you  as  your  parent  would  be.  ' 

4.  Ann  was  as  kind  as  she  said  she  would  be,  and  brought  up  her  young 
bird  till  he  could  hop  and  fly ;  and  he  was  so  tame,  he  would  hop  out  of  his  I 
cage,  and  would  peck  out  of  her  hand  if  she  did  but  call,  Dick,  Dick.  ', 

5.  At  last  Dick  flew  out  of  doors,  and  all  the  wild  birds  got  round  him ;  ] 
for  they  do  not  like  tame  birds.      So  Dick  got  up  into  a  high  tree  to  hide  in 
the  thick  boughs,  but  the  wild  birds  soon  drove  him  from  thence.     Then  he 
found  a  hole  in  the  wall,  where  he  was  in  hopes  he  should  lie  quite  snug ; 
but  there  a  rat  had  like  to  have  caught  him.  ] 

6.  At  last  dark  night  came  on  and  he  had  no  food.  So,  as  soon  as  the  day  ; 
came,  and  it  was  light,  he  flew  back  to  Ann,  and  was  glad  to  live  in  her  cage  j 
all  the  rest  of  his  days. 

questions.  I 

What  is  this  story,  which  you  have  just  read,  about?     Who  found  the  bird  1  \ 

Where  did  he  find  it?     What  did  he  do  with  it?     What  did  he  ask  Ann  to  i 

do  with  it  when  he  had  got  it  home?      What  did  Ann  say  to  Charles  about  :\ 

robbing  birds'-nests  1     Was  not  she  a  very  good-natured,  humane  girl  ?     How  , 


SCHOOL  BOOKS.  77 

did  Charles  tell'hier  he  had  got  the  bird "!  How  did  she  suppose  the  bird  came 
tu  be  on  the  ground!  How  did  she  treat  the  birdl  What  did  she  give  it 
instead  of  a  nesf!  Did  the  bird  grow  tame)  What  did  he  do  when  he 
had  become  tame?  Do  wild  birrls  do  so?  What  did  Ann  call  the  bird? 
What  did  Dick  do  at  last  ?  How  did  the  wild  birds  treat  him  1  Do  they  not 
like  tame  birds'!  Where  did  Dick  hide?  Did  the  wild  birds  drive  him  out 
of  the  thick  boughs  of  the  high  treel  Where  did  he  hide  then"?  What 
creature  had  like  to  have  caught  him  1  What  did  he  do  in  the  morning  7 
Where  did  he  live  all  the  rest  of  his  life?  Now  tell  the  story  yourself  from 
beginning  to  end. .     Do  you  like  Ann  Jones?     Why? 


SECOND  SPECIMEN  FOR  EXAMTNATION. 

T%e  Body  and  the  Soul. 

1.  Every  person  has  a  body  and  a  soul.  You  have  a  body  and  a  soul :  the 
body  is  that  part  of  you  which  can  be  seen  and  felt ;  your  soul  is  that  part  of 
you  which  cannot  be  seen,  but  which  thinks. 

2.  The  soul  cannot  be  seen,  because  it  is  a  spirit.  To  die  is  to  have  the 
soul  leave  the  body. 

3.  When  the  soul  leaves  the  body,  the  body  loses  its  life,  it  is  a  dead  corpse; 
it  is  buried,  its  flesh  turns  to  corruption,  and  its  bones  moulder  away,  till  there 
is  none  of  the  body  to  be  seen;  but  the  soul  still  lives;  so  that  there  is  not 
an  end  of  us  when  we  die ;  the  better  part  remains  alive. 

QCESTIONS. 

Has  every  person  a  body  and  a  soul  ?  Have  you  a  body  and  a  soul  ?  Which 
part  of  you  can  be  seen,  your  body  or  your  soul  1  Which  of  these  thinks? 
Why  cannot  the  soul  be  seen?  Don't  you  find  that  there  is  something  in  you 
which  you  cannot  see,  but  which  thinks?  What  is  this?  Which  dies,  the 
body  or  the  soul?  What  does  the  body  lose  when  the  soul  goes  out  of  it? 
What  is  done  with  it  then?  What  does  the  flesh  of  the  body  turn  to?  Do 
these  things  happen  to  the  soul  ?  Does  that  turn  to  corruption  and  moulder 
away  ?  Is  there  an  end  of  us  when  we  die?  Which  part  remains  alive  after 
the  other  ?  Which  is  the  better  part,  the  body  that  dies,  or  the  soul  that  never 
dies? 


78  DESCRIPTION  OF  SCHOOL  BOOKS. 

QUESTIONS  ON  LESSON  SIXTIETH. 

The  Countryman  and  the  Snake. 

What  is  this  story  about?  What  sort  of  a  man  was  that  mentioned  in  the 
story'!  Was  he  kind  to  the  cats  and  dogs  and  other  animals  ?  Were  tliey 
fond  of  him  ?  May  we  make  a  mistake  sometimes  even  in  doing  an  act  of 
kindness?  What  did  the  good-natured  man  find  one  cold  day?  What  did  he 
do  with  the  adder?  Why  did  he  put  it  in  his  bosom?  What  did  he  do  with 
the  adder  when  he  got  it  home  ?  What  did  his  children  do  ?  When  he  got 
warm,  how  did  the  snake  behave  ?  How  did  the  children  behave  ?  How  did 
the  poor  man  treat  the  snake  ?  What  did  the  poor  man  learn  from  this  ?  Is 
it  common  for  animals  to  be  ungrateful  for  kindness  ? 

Now  tell  me  about  the  picture.  What  is  it  a  picture  of?  Does  it  represent 
a  place  out  of  doors  or  in  the  house  ?  Does  it  seem  to  be  in  the  parlour  or  the 
kitchen?  What  objects  do  you  see  which  make  it  appear  to  be  a  kitchen  ? 
Where  is  the  snake  ?  What  is  the  man  going  to  do  ?  Who  are  the  folks  in 
the  corner  ?  Do  they  look  frightened  ?  What  has  frightened  them  ?  What 
is  it  which  they  have  upset  in  their  flight  ?  See,  now,  how  many  different 
things  you  can  point  out  in  this  picture. 


It  is  the  design  of  the  subscribers,  who  are  the  publishers  of 
the  above  books,  to  continue  the  series,  as  before  stated,  till 
they  complete  as  perfect  a  system  of  elementary  books,  as  can 
be  produced  by  the  experience  and  talents  of  those  who  have 
devoted  years  to  the  advancement  of  education.  Constant  care 
will  at  all  times  be  observed  to  place  none  before  the  public, 
but  such  as  are  useful  and  designed  to  aid  in  the  developement 
of  the  youthful  mind.  Several  works  of  this  description  are  at 
this  time  in  preparation,  but  as  great  care  will  be  taken  to  per- 
fect them,  much  time  must  necessarily  elapse  before  they  will 
be  published. 

HOGAN  &  THOMPSON 

Publishers,  and  wholesale  booksellers,  No.  30  North  Fourth 
Street,  two  doors  south  of  Sanderson's  Hotel,  Philadelphia. 


..i 


,1^ 


POPULAR  HISTORIES  FOR  SCHOOLS. 


The  following  series  of  Histories  for  school  use  have  been  pre- 
pared with  special  reference  to  the  Public  Schools  of  the  Country- 
Each  work  comprises  an  interesting  reading-book,  and  the  whole 
series,  in  four  moderate  size  volumes,  makes  a  complete  course 
of  Historical  Study,  which  is  indispensable  to  the  forming  an  in- 
telligent young  man. 

RUSSEL'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

RUSSEL'S  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE. 

RUSSEL'S  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND,  SCOTLAND,  AND  IRELAND. 

RUSSEL'S  HISTORIES  OF  ANCIENT  GREECE  AND  ROME. 

LARDNER'S  OUTLINES  OF  UNIVERSAL  HISTORY. 

The  two  first  named  of  the  above  Histories,  The  United  States  and  France,  are  al- 
ready published ;  the  two  others  are  in  progress  now  through  the  press  and  will  be 
published  in  the  ensuing  spring.  They  are  written  with  the  express  design  of  use 
in  American  schools,  and  particularly  harmonise  in  their  character  with  the  system 
of  Public  School  Instruction.  They  are  not  merely  a  dry  detail  of  facts,  but  render 
History  subservient  to  the  advancement  of  the  thinking  faculties  and  the  elevation 
of  moral  character,  enlivened  with  anecdotes  of  eminent  and  virtuous  individuals. 
The  grave  study  of  History  is  delightfully  relieved  by  the  innumerable  interesting 
points  of  Biography. 

Extract  from  the  "  Journal  of  Education," 

"  It  is  with  no  little  pleasure  that  we  have  examined  the  new  series  of  School 
Histories,  at  the  head  of  this  article,  recently  published  by  Messrs.  Hogan  and 
Thompson  of  Philadelphia.  They  are  far  the  best  of  any  that  we  have  seen,  and 
until  their  appearance,  we  had  thought  that  nothing  superior  to  those  in  general  use, 
could  be  brought  forward;  the  appearance  of  these  volumes,  convinces  us  that  we 
have  been  in  error.  The  books  are  pure  and  simple  in  style,  correct  in  outline, 
and  admirably  arranged  in  chronological  order,  the  illustrations  are  of  a  superior 
class,  and  beautifully  executed  by  the  first  artists.  Representing,  as  they  do,  some 
of  the  most  soul-stirring  events  of  the  world,  they  cannot  fail  to  attract  the  eye  of 
youth,  and  indelibly  fix  in  their  minds  a  recollection  that  such  things  have  been  ; 
whilst  the  text  of  the  author,  teaches  both  to  reason  and  think  on  their  cause  and 
effect. 

"  We  congratulate  the  talented  author,  the  liberal  publishers,  and  the  growing  youth 
of  our  country,  on  the  appearance  of  these  volumes. 

"To  Teachers  we  cannot  say  too  much  in  recommendation  of  this  work," 

From  Chandler'' s  Gazette. 

History  of  France. 

Messrs.  Hogan  and  Thompson,  30  North  Fourth  Street,  have  published  the  His- 
tory of  France,  from  the  earliest  time  to  the  present  day,  on  the  basis  of  Sadler's  his- 
tory, and  arranged  for  the  use  of  Schools,  with  questions  for  the  examination  of 
students,  by  John  Russel,  A.  M. 

We  referred  with  commendation,  a  few  days  since,  to  a  history  of  the  United 
States  by  the  same  author.  A  careful  perusal  of  the  History  of  France,  leads  us  to 
believe  that  Mr.  Russel  has  in  that  acquitted  himself  with  even  more  of  success 
than  on  his  former  attempt.  The  History  of  France  is  interesting,  from  the  lofty 
character  of  the  actors  on  its  scene,  and  the  importance  of  the  events  with  which 
they  were  connected.  The  story  has  indeed  been  told,  but  rarely  in  a  form  for  school 
classes,  and  never,  certainly,  better,  than  by  Mr.  Russel.  In  general,  we  remark, 
that  in  the  account  of  the  civil  wars  he  seems  anxious  to  do  all  the  justice  to  each 
party  which  existing  or  attainable  records  will  allow  him.  The  plan  of  the  work  is 
fine,  and  the  execution  highljPcommendable. 


I  liardner's  Outlines  of  Universal  History, 

0  Embracing  a  concise  History  of  the  World  from  the  earliest  period  to  Uie  present 

y.  time,  arranged  so  that  the  whole  may  be  studied  by  periods,  or  the  history  of  any 

K  country  may  be  read  by  itself.     With  questions  for  the  examination  of  Uudents. 

5  The  work  is  beautifully  illustrated  with  49  superior  engravings,  representing 
9  some  of  the  most  interesting  historical  scenes. 

Ci  The  author  in  his  "  Advertisement"  to  this  work,  says— "The  object  of  the  writer 

0  of  the  present  volume  has  been  to  give  a  correct,  and,  as  far  as  the  limits  would 

ft  permit,  a  comprehensive  epitome  of  the  history  of  the  world,  which  accuracy  ot  nar- 

()  rative  and   chronology  would  render  valuable  as  a  book  of  reference,  and  in  which 

0  general  views  and  reflections  would  remove  the  dryness  inseparable  from  a  mere 

6  enumeration  of  facts.  And  it  is  hoped,  that  the  tyro  who  studies  U  with  attention, 
0  will  tind  himself  at  the  termination  of  his  labour,  ignorant  of  few  of  the  great  cha- 
0  racters  and  events  which  occur  in  the  history  of  the  world." 

<)  The  book  is  arranged  with  the  chronological  dates  in  the  margin  of  each  page,  so 

A  that  the  student  may  at  a  moment  ascertain  the  time  of  any  particular  transaction. 

ft  Besides,  it  has  a  copious  index ;  a  tabular  view  of  royal  dynasties;  a  chrono  ogical 

0  table  of  eminent  persons,  showing  the  time  of  their  birth  and  death,  and  a  chrono- 
ft  logical  view  of  important  events  from  the  first  olympiad  till  the  year  1«29. 

ft  Every  parent  should  place  this  volume  in  the  hands  of  his  children,  and  school- 

ft  masters  who  value  the  time  and  improvement  of  those  entrusted  to  their  care,  would 

ft  do  well  to  examine  and  place  the  work  before  their  scholars.     In  it  they  wilt  tmd 

()  much  that  is  new  in  arrangement,  and  a  vast  collection  of  facts  that  have  never  yet 

{)  appeared  in  any  one  work  of  History. 

9  Hogan  and  Thompson  have  for  sale  the  following  valuable 

X  Arithmetic,  just  from  the  press. 

1  KEITH'S  ARITHMETIC, 

K  Practical  and  self-explanatory,  in  which  the  mental  and  didactic  plans  are  com- 

X  bined,  so  as  to  form  a  completely  plain  system  for  all  practical  purposes,  and  at  «ie 

};  same  time  forming  a  thorough  foundation  for  the  study  of  the  more  advanced  branches 

X  of  the  Mathematics.     The  whole  reconstructed  on  the  basis  of  the  original  work. 

X  Revised  and  entirely  adapted  to  American  currency,  and  use  in  American  Schools. 

K  By  an  experienced  Teacher  of  Mathematics.                                                         .   . 

'(■:  To  which  is  added,  a  comprehensive  Treatise  on  Mensuration,  and  an  orirrmal 

A  and  perspicuous  system  of  Book-Keeping. 

K  The  following  from  the  Author,  will  give  TeaxjTiere.  an  ideft  of  the  value  of  tbe 

A  work. 

^  Extract  from  the  Author's  Preface. 

Q  "The  long  discussions  to  be  found  in  the  ephemeral  Arithmetics  of  the  present 

Q  day,  tend   to  embarrass  the  learner  by  burdening  his   mind  with  a   multitude  of 

V  words.  Conciseness,  clearness,  and  practical  method  are  the  merits  claimed  for  the 
0  work  now  offered  to  the   public.     The  rules  in  it  are  short  and  plain  in  their  lan- 

V  guage  to  the  comprehension  of  the  child,  and  if  there  is  a  redundancy  in  any  of  its 
0  parts,  it  will  be  found  in  the  uncommon  number  of  Examples  given  to  illustrate  the 
0  Rules.  .  ,  J 
0  "  The  arrangement  of  the  whole  work  in  detail,  is  such  as  to  progressively  de- 
()  velopc  the  faculties  of  the  pupil,  and  lead  him  imperceptibly  into  the  whole  science  of 
0  numbers.  He  will  be  completed  in  all  that  is  necessary  to  fit  him  for  business,  and 
0  have  a  wide  foundation  for  the  studies  of  Surveying,  Geometry,  and  the  still  higher 
()  branches  of  mathematical  knowledge. 

V  "  The  Author  desires  to  put  forth  this  work  with  no  pretensions,  the  truth  of  which 
0  will  not  be  realised  by  the  experience  of  others.  He  has  tested  the  practical  utility 
0  of  his  work.  The  manuscript  in  the  hands  of  his  pupils  equalled  all  his  expec- 
Q  tations.  The  saving  of  time,  of  labour,  and  the  advanced  state  of  instruction,  re- 
'"'  suiting  from  its  use,  has  been  greatly  over  what  he  had  ever  gained  by  the  use  of 

books,  overburdened  with  diffuse  and  tiresome  directions,  msiny  of  which  it  is  im- 
possible for  a  child  to  comprehend  "  ""^^^^Qi^ek^^   9    ^   ^ 


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